Max Heindel - The Rosicrucian Mysteries; an Elementary Exposition of their Secret Teachings, 1916 by gnosisclassics

J/-CSB

LIBRARY

THE l

Rosicrucian Mysteries An Elementary Exposition of

Their Secret Teachings By

MAX HEINDEL of: The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception, The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers, The Rosicru-

Author

cian Interpretation of Christianity.

from the Rose Cross,

Rays

etc.

SECOND EDITION $J .00

Postfree

ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP Oceanside, California

LONDON L. N. Fowler,

7 Imperial Arcade

Ludgate Circus, E. C.

M. A. Donohue Co. Printers,

Chicago.

List

CHAPTER

of Contents

THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS AND THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP

A New Step Mount Ecclesia

CHAPTER

5 17 24

II.

THE PROBLEM

OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION 27 34 Three Theories of Life We Are Eternal. (Poem by the 41 Author)

CHAPTER THE

in.

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

The The The The

Chemical Region Etheric Region Desire World

WORLD 54 54 61 74 95

World of Thought Creed or Christ. (Poem by the 118 Author)

CHAPTER

IV.

THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN The Vital Body The Desire Body The Mind

120 122 130 .133

CHAPTER

LIFE AND DEATH

136

Invisible Helpers

and Mediums

.... 136

Death

The Panorama

of Past Life

Purgatory

The First Heaven The Second Heaven The Third Heaven Birth and Child-Life The Mystery of Light, Color and Consciousness

Education of Children

142 153 158 173 179 182 186

187 192

CHAPTER

ODrtor nf lUtBtmtrimta

OUR MESSAGE AND MISSION

Sane Mind

Soft

Heart

Sound Body

Before entering upon an explanation of the teachings of the Rosicrucians, it may be well to say a word about them and about the place they hold in the evolution of humanity. For reasons to be given later these teachings advocate the dualistic view; they hold that man is a spirit enfolding all the powers of God as the seed enfolds the plant, and that these powers are being slowly unfolded by a series of existences in a gradually improving earthy body; also that this process of development has been performed under the guidance of exalted beings who are yet ordering our steps, though in a decreasing 5

THE BOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

measure, as

and

will.

we gradually

acquire intellect

These exalted Beings, though un-

seen to the physical eyes, are nevertheless potent factors in all affairs of life, and give to the various groups of humanity lessons which will most efficiently promote the growth of their spiritual powers. In fact, the earth may be likened to a vast training school in which there are pupils of varying age and ability as we find it in one of our own schools. There are the savages, living

and worshipping under most primitive conditions, seeing in stick or stone a

God. Then,

as man progresses onwards and upwards in the scale of civilization, we find a higher and

higher conception of Deity, which has flowered here in our Western World in the beautiful Christian religion that now furnishes our spiritual inspiration and incentive to

improve.

These various religions have been given to each group of humanity by the exalted beings whom we know in the Christian religion as the Recording Angels, whose wonderful prevision enable them to view the trend of even so unstable a quantity as the human mind, and thus they are enabled to determine what steps are necessary to lead

THE ORDER

OF ROSICKUCIANS

our enf oldment along the lines congruous to the highest universal good. When we study the history of the ancient nations we shall find that at about six hun-

dred years B. C. a great spiritual wave had its inception on the Eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean where the great Confucian Religion accelerated the progress of the Chinese nation, then also the Religion of the

Buddha commenced

win

its

millions of

adherents in India, and still further West we have the lofty philosophy of Pythagoras. Each system was suited to the needs of the particular people to whom it was sent. Then came the period of the Sceptics, in Greece, and later, traveling westward the same spiritual wave is manifested as the Christian religion of the so-called "Dark Ages" when

of a dominant church compelled belief from the whole of Western Europe. It is a law in the universe that a wave of spiritual awakening is always followed by the

dogma

doubting materialism, each necessary in order that the spirit phase receive may equal development of heart and intellect without being carried too far in The Great Beings aforeeither direction. mentioned, Who care for our progress, ala

period is

THE

ROSICRTJCIAN MYSTERIES

ways take steps

safeguard

humanity

against that danger, and when they foresaw the wave of materialism which commenced in the sixteenth century with the birth of our

modern Science, they took West as they had for-

steps to protect the

merly safeguarded the East against the Sceptics who were held in check by the Mystery schools. In the thirteenth century there appeared in central Europe a great spiritual teacher

whose symbolical name was Christian Rosenkreuz. or Christian Rose Cross. who founded the mysterious Order of the Rosy Cross, concerning which so many speculations have been made and so little has become known to the world at large, for it is the Mystery school of the West and is only open to those who have attained the stage of spiritual unfoldment necessary to

be initiated in

its secrets concerning the Science of Life and Being. If we are so far developed that we are able to leave our dense physical body and take a soul flight into interplanetary space we shall find that the ultimate physical atom

THE OEDEB is

OF EOSICEUCIANS

spherical in shape like our earth; it is a When we take a number of balls of

ball.

even size and group them around me,

will

take just twelve balls to hide a thirteenth within. Thus the twelve visible and the one

hidden are numbers revealing a cosmic reare lationship and as all Mystery Orders based upon cosmic lines, they are composed of twelve members gathered around a thirteenth

who

the invisible head.

There are seven colors in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and But between the violet and the red

violet.

there are

still

another

five colors

which are

physical eye but reveal themselves to the spiritual sight. In every Mystery Order there are also seven brothers who at times go out into the world and there perform whatever work may be necessary to invisible to the

advance the people among whom they serve, but five are never seen outside the temple. They work with and teach those alone who have passed through certain stages of spiritual unfoldment and are able to visit the temple in their spiritual bodies; a feat taught in the

first initiation

which usually

takes place outside the temple as

it is

not

THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

convenient for

all to visit

that place physic-

ally.

Let not the reader imagine that this

initi-

makes the pupil a Eosicrucian, it does not, any more than admission to a High School makes a boy a member of the faculty. Nor does he become a Kosicrucian even afation

ter having passed through all the nine degrees of this or any other Mystery School.

The Eosicrucians are Hierophants

the

lesser Mysteries, and beyond them there are are still schools wherein Greater Mysteries

taught. Those who have advanced through the lesser Mysteries and have become pupils

of the Greater Mysteries are called Adepts, but even they have not reached the exalted standpoint of the twelve Brothers of the Eosicrucian Order or the Hierophants of any other lesser Mystery School any more than the freshman at college has attained to the knowledge and position of a teacher in the

High school from which he has

just gradu-

ated.

later

work

will deal

we may say here

with initiation, but

that the door of a genuine Mystery School is not unlocked by a golden key, but is only opened as a reward for meritorious service to humanity and any one

THE ORDER who

OP BOSICRUCIANS

advertises himself as a Bosicrucian or

makes a charge for

tuition,

either

those acts shows himself to be a charlatan. The true pupil of any Mystery School is far too modest to advertise the fact, he will scorn all titles or honors from men, he will

have no regard for riches save the riches of love given to him by those whom it becomes his privilege to help and teach. In the centuries that have gone by since the Bosicrucian Order was first formed they have worked quietly and secretly, aiming to

mould the

thought of "Western Europe the works of Paracelsus, Boehme, through

Bacon, Shakespeare, Fludd and others. Each night at midnight when the physical activities of the day are at their lowest ebb, and the spiritual impulse at its highest flood tide, they have sent out from their temple soul-stirring vibrations to counteract materialism and to further the development of soul powers. To their activities we owe the gradual spiritualization of our once so materialistic science.

With the commencement of the twentieth century a further step was taken. It was realized that something must be done to make

12 religion scientific as well as to make science religious, in order that they may ultimately blend ; for at the present time heart and intel-

The heart instinctively lect are divorced. feels the truth of religious teachings concerning such wonderful mysteries as the ImmacuConception (the Mystic Birth), the Crucifixion (the Mystic Death), the cleansing blood, the atonement, and other doctrines of the Church, which the intellect refuses to believe, as they are incapable of demonstration, and seemingly at war with natural law. Material advancement may be furthered when intellect is dominant and the longings of the heart unsatisfied, but soul growth will be retarded until the heart also receives satisfaclate

tion.

In order to give the world a teaching so blended that it will satisfy both the mind and heart, a messenger must be found and instructed. Certain unusual qualifications were necessary, and the first one chosen failed to pass a certain test after several years had been spent to prepare him for the work to be done. It is well said that there is a time to sow, and a time to reap, and that there are certain times for all the works of life, and in accord-

THE ORDER

OF ROSICRUCIANS

ance with this law of periodicity each impulse in spiritual uplift must also be undertaken at an appropriate time to be successful. The first and sixth decades of each century are particularly propitious to

commence the pro-

mulgation of new spiritual teachings. Therefore the Rosicrucians were much concerned at this failure, for only five years were left of the first decade of the twentieth century. Their second choice of a messenger fell upon the present writer, though he knew it not at the time, and by shaping circumstances about him they made it possible for him to begin a period of preparation for the work they desired him to do. Three years later, when he had gone to Germany, also because of circumstances shaped by the invisible Brotherhood, and was on the verge of despair at the discovery that the light which was the object of his quest, was only a jack-o-lantern, the Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order applied the test to see whether he would be a faithful messenger and give the teachings they desired to entrust to him, to the world.

And when

he had passed the trial they gave him the monumental solution of the problem of existence first published in "The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception" in November, 1909,

THE BOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

more than a year before the expiration of the first

decade of the twentieth century.

This

" book marked a new era in so-called occult" literature, and the many editions which have since been published, as well as the thousands of letters which continue to come to the author, are speaking testimonies to the fact that people are finding in this teaching a satisfaction they have long sought elsewhere in vain. The Eosicrucians teach that all great religions have been given to the people among

whom they are

found, by Divine Intelligences of worship to suit the needs of the race or nation to whom they were given. primitive people cannot respond to a lofty and sublime religion, and vice versa. What helps one race would hinder another, and in pursuance of the same policy there has been devised a system of soul-unfoldment suited specially to the Western people, who are racially and temperamentally unfit to undergo the discipline of the Eastern school, which was designed for the

who designed each system

more backward Hindoos.

THL BOSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP For

the purpose of promulgating the Bosicrucian teachings in the Western World, the

THE ORDER

OF EosiCRtrciANS

Eosicmcian Fellowship was founded in 1909. It is the herald of the Aquarian Age, when the Sun by its precessional passage through the constellation Aquarius, will bring out all the intellectual and spiritual potencies in man which are symbolized by that sign. As heat from a fire warms all objects within the sphere of its radiations, so also the aquarian ray will raise the earth's vibrations to a pitch we are as yet unable to comprehend, though we have demonstrations of the material workings of this force in the inventions which have revolutionized life within the memory of the

present generation. We have wondered at the X-ray, which sees through the human body, but each one has a sense latent which when evolved will enable him to see through any number of bodies or to any distance. We marvel at the telephone conversations across the continent of America, but each has within a latent sense of speech and hearing that is far more acute; we are surprised at the exploits of ships under sea and in the sky, but we are all capable of passage under water or through the sky; nay, more, we may pass unscathed through the solid rock and the raging fire, if we know how, and lightning itself slow compared to the speed with which we

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

This sounds like a fairy tale today, as did Jules Verne's stories a generation ago, but the Aquarian Age will witness the realization of these dreams, and ever so much more that we still do not even dream of. Such faculties will then be the possessions of large

may

travel.

numbers of people who will have gradually evolved them as previously the ability to walk, speak, hear, and see, were developed. Therein

lies

a great danger, for, obviously,

anyone endowed with such faculties may use them to the greatest detriment of the world at large, unless restrained by a spirit of unselfishness and an all-embracing altruism. Therefore religion

needed today as never

and fellow-feeling among humanity so that it may be prepared to use the great gifts in store for it wisely and before,

foster

love

This need of religion is specially felt in a certain class where the ether is more loosely knit to the physical atoms than in the majority, and on that account they are now beginning to sense the aquarian vibrations. This class is again divided in two groups. In one the intellect is dominant, and the people in that class therefore seek to grasp the spiritual mysteries out of curiosity from the viewpoint of cold reason. They pursue the well.

THE OKDER

OF EOSICBUCIANS

path of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, considering that an end in itself. The idea that knowledge is of value only when put to practical constructive use does not seem to have presented itself to them. This class we

may

call occultists.

The other group does not care

for knowl-

edge, but feels an inner urge God-ward, and pursues the path of devotion to the high ideal set before them in Christ, doing the deeds that

did as far their flesh will permit, and this in time results in an interior illumination which brings with it all the knowledge obtained by the other class-, and much more. This class we may describe as mystics. Certain dangers confront each of the two groups. If the occultist obtains illumination and evolves within himself the latent spiritual faculties, he may use them for the furtherance of his personal objects, to the great detriment of his fellow-men. That is black magic, and the punishment which it automatically calls down upon the head of the perpetrator is so awful that it is best to draw the veil over it. The mystic may also err because of ignorance, and fall into the meshes of nature's law, but being actuated by love, his mistakes will never be very serious, and as he grows in grace the

THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

soundless voice within Ms heart will speak more distinctly to teach him the way. The Rosicrucian Fellowship endeavors to prepare the world in general, and the sensitives of the two groups in particular, for the awakening of the latent powers in man, so that all may be guided safely through the danger-zone and be as well fitted as possible to use these new faculties. Effort is made to blend the love without which Poul declared a knowledge of all mysteries worthless, with a mystic knowledge rooted and grounded in love, so that the pupils of this school may become living exponents of this blended soulscience of the Western Wisdom School, and gradually educate humanity at large in the virtues necessary to make the possession of

higher powers safe.

MOUNT

ECCLESIA

Work

in the physical world requires physical means of accomplishment; therefore a

was bought in 1911 in the town of Oceanside, ninety miles south of Los AngSouthern California was eles, California. selected because of the abundance of ether in tract of land

the

atmosphere there, and this spot was found favored in that respect.

to be particularly

THE ORDER

OF EOSICRUCIANS

On this commanding site, having a wide view of the great Pacific Ocean; of snowcapped mountains and smiling valleys, we commenced to establish our headquarters in the end of 1911, and in the five years which have passed between that time and the present writing we have erected a sanctuary where the Rosicrucian Temple Service is held at appropriate times. The Rose Cross Healing Circle holds

meetings there to help sufferers, and it is the place appoined for the united morning and evening devotions of the workers. We have also built a two-story Administration Building to house the general its

the book department, the correspondence school in Christian Mysticism which links Headquarters with students all over the world, editorial offices of our monthly publicaoffice,

notably "Eays From the Rose Cross." There is also an astrological department which conducts a correspondence school. These offices are located on the second floor, and the whole first floor is occupied by a modtions,

ern printing plant required to furnish the

immense amount of

literature needed in this In addition to the work we are able to do at Headquarters, several books like this

work.

THE

BOSICETJCIAN MYSTERIES

are printed in Chicago to help to spread the teachings.

A Dining Hall with seating capacity for 120

affords ample accommodation for workers, students and patients. The scientific meatless diet served there preserves or restores Furtherhealth, as required in each case. more, it improves the vitality and mentality in an astonishing degree. large dormitory, a number of cottages and tents provide living quarters for all. Mount Ecclesia has its own electric light plant, which supplies light for inside and outside lighting, and power for the printing plant. There is also a pumping plant to supply the water which is so vital a necessity to plant-growth in Southern California. By the liberal use of water and the expenditure of much labor, Mount Ecclesia is gradually being transformed into a luxuriant tropical park. There is a deep spiritual purpose in this attempt to make the visible centre of the new world movement beautiful, for it fosters in the workers a poise and peace which is absolutely essential to the proper performance of their work. Without that they cannot escape being disturbed by the flood of sorrow and trouble which flows into Headquarters from

THE ORDER

OF BOSICRUCIANS

over the world without that they cannot continue to put heart into the letters

members

all

;

of help, hope and -cheer which continually go out to souls who are groaning under the bur-

den of sickness, but by bathing their souls in the beauty of the surroundings, whether consciously or not, they gain in strength and grow in grace, they become better and better fitted for the Great Work in the Master's Vineyard. In order to aid those who feel the upward urge, to prepare intelligently and reverently for the unf oldment of their inner latent spiritual powers, the Kosicrucian Fellowship maintains two correspondence courses which furnish instruction to students all over the world. One deals with Astrology, the other with Christian Mysticism.

The Astrology to which we refer is not to be confounded with fortune-telling; it is a phase of the Mystic Religion, as sublime as the stars with which it deals, and to the Mystic they are not dead bodies moving in space in obedience to so-called blind natural law, but they are the embodiments of "The Seven Spirits before the Throne," mighty StarAngels who use their benevolent influences to

THE EOSICKUCIAN MYSTERIES

guide other less exalted beings, humanity

in-

cluded, upon the path of evolution. There is a side of the moon which we never see, but that^hidden half is as potent a factor in creating the ebb and flow, as the part of the moon which is visible. Similarly, there is an invisible part of man which exerts a powerful influence in life, and as the tides are measured by the motion of sun and moon, so also the eventualities of existence are measured by the circling stars, which may therefore be called "the Clock of Destiny," and knowledge of their import is an immense power, for to the competent Astrologer a horoscope reveals every secret of life.

Thus, when you have given an astrologer the data of your birth, you have given him the key to your innermost soul, and there is no secret that he may not ferret out. This knowledge may be used for good or ill, to help or hurt, according to the naiure of the man. Only a friend should be trusted with this key to your soul, and it should never be given to anyone base enough to prostitute a spiritual science for material gain. To the medical man Astrology is invaluable in diagnosing diseases and prescribing a remedy, for it reveals the hidden cause of all

THE ORDER

OF BOSICRUCIANS

ailments, in a manner that has often perplexed the skeptic and dumbfounded the scoffer.

The opinion

of thousands is of great value, does not but it prove anything, for thousands may hold an opposite view; occasionally a single man may be right and the rest of the world wrong, as when Galileo maintained that the earth moves. Today the whole world has been converted to the opinion for which he

suffered torture, and we assert that, as man is a composite being, cures are successful only in proportion as they remedy defects on the physical, moral and mental planes of Being. also maintain that results may be obtained more easily at certain times when stellar rays are propitious to healing of a partic-

ular disease, or by treatment with remedies previously prepared under auspicious conditions.

If you are a parent the horoscope will aid you to detect the evil latent in your child and teach you how to apply the ounce of prevention. It will show you the good points also, that you may make a better man or woman of the soul entrusted to your care. It will reveal

systemic weakness and enable you to guard the health of your child; it will show what

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

talents are there, and how the life may be lived to a maximum of usefulness. Therefore, the message of the marching orbs is so important that you cannot afford to remain igno-

rant thereof. In order to aid those who are willing to help themselves we maintain a Correspondence Class in Astrology, but make no mistake, we do not teach fortune-telling if that is what you are looking for, we have nothing for you. ;

OUR LESSONS ARE SERMONS They embody the highest moral and

spirit-

ual principles, together with the loftiest system of ethics, for Astrology is, to us, a phase of religion; we never look at a horoscope without feeling that we are in a holy presence, face to face with an immortal soul, and our attitude is one of prayer for light to guide that soul aright.

Do NOT CAST HOROSCOPES we can say, many people write Despite enclosing money for horoscopes, forcing us to all

spend valuable time writing letters of refusal and giving us the trouble of returning their money. Please do not thus annoy us it will avail you nothing. ;

THE ORDER THE COURSE

IET

OP ROSICRUCIANS

CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

Christ taught the multitude in parables, but explained the mysteries to His disciples. Paul gave milk to the babes, but meat to the strong.

Max Heindel, the founder and leader of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, endeavors to follow in their steps and give to interested and devoted students a deeper teaching than that promulgated in public. For that purpose he conducts a correspondence course in Christian Mysticism. The General Secretary may admit applicants to the preliminary course, but advancement in the deeper degrees depends upon merit. It is for those alone who have been tried, and found true.

How

TO APPLY FOR ADMISSION

Anyone who

not engaged in fortunetelling or similar methods of commercializing is

spiritual knowledge will, ceive an application blank

Secretary,

upon request, refrom the General

Rosicrucian Fellowship.

When

this blank is returned properly filled, he may admit the applicant to instruction in either or

both correspondence courses.

THE KOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

THE COST OF THE COURSE There are no fixed fees no esoteric instruction is ever put in the balance against coin. ;

At the same "for

time, it cannot be given "free," nothing," for those who work to promul-

gate it must have the necessities of life. Type, paper, machinery and postage also cost money, and unless you pay your part someone else must pay for you. There are a few who cannot contribute, and who need these teachings as much or more than those who may take comfort from financial ease or affluence. If they make their condition known, they will receive as much attention as the largest contributors, but others are expected to contribute for their own good as well as for the good of the work. Eemember, a closed hand that does not give cannot receive.

CHAPTER

glrabkm of SItfe

attln

3ta

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE. Among

all

the vicissitudes of

life,

which

vary in each individual's experience, there is one event which sooner or later comes to everyone Death! No matter what our station in life, whether the life lived has

been a laudable one or the reverse, whether great achievements have marked our path among men whether health or sickness have been our lot, whether we have been famous and surrounded by a host of admiring friends or have wandered unknown through the years of our life, at some time there comes a mo;

ment when we stand alone before the portal of death and are forced to take the leap into the dark.

The thought of this leap and beyond must inevitably force 27

what lies itself upon

THE

KOSICRUCIAST MYSTEBBES

In the years every thinking person. when the bark of our and health, youth

of life

upon seas of prosperity, when all appears beautiful and bright, we may put the sails

thought behind us, but there will surely come a time in the life of every thinking person when the problem of life and death for-

upon his consciousness and refuses to be set aside. Neither will it help him to accept the ready made solution of anyone else without thought and in blind belief, for this is a basic problem which every one must solve for himself or herself in order to obtain satisfaction. ces itself

Upon the Eastern edge of the Desert of Sahara there stands the world-famous Sphinx with its inscrutable face turned toward the East, ever greeting the sun as its rising rays herald the newborn day. It was said in the Greek myth that it was the wont of this monster to ask a riddle of each travShe devoured those who could not anbut when Oedipus solved the riddle she swer,

eler.

destroyed herself.

The riddle which she asked of men was the riddle of life and death, a query which is as relevant today as ever, and which each one must answer or be devoured in the jaws

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND

ITS SOLUTION 29

of death. But when once a person has found the solution to the problem, it will appear that in reality there is no death, that what appears so, is but a change from one state of existence to another. Thus, for the man who finds the true solution to the riddle of life, the sphinx of death has ceased to exthe triumist, and he can lift his voice in

phant cry "Oh death where is thy sting, oh grave where is thy victory." Various theories of life have been advocated to solve this problem of life. We may divide them into two classes, namely the monistic theory, which holds that all the facts of life can be explained by reference to this visible world wherein we live, and the dualistic theory, which refers part of the phenomenon of life to another world which is

now

invisible to us.

Eaphael in his famous painting "the School of Athens" has most aptly pictured to us the attitude of these two schools of thought. "We see upon that marvelous painting a Greek Court such as those wherein philosophers were once wont to congregate. Upon the various steps which lead into the building a large number of men are engaged in deep conversation, but in the

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

center at the top of the steps stand two supposedly of Plato and Aristotle,

figures,

one pointing upwards, the other towards the earth, each looking the other in the face, mutely, but with deeply concentrated will. Each seeking to convince the other that his attitude is right for each bears the conviction in his heart. One holds that he is of the earth earthy, that he has come from the dust and that thereto he will return, the other firmly advocates the position that there is a higher something which has al-

ways existed and will continue regardless of whether the body wherein it now dwells holds together or not. The question who is right is still an open one with the majority of mankind. Millions of tons of paper and printer 's ink have

been used in futile attempts to settle it by argument, but it will always remain open to all who have not solved the riddle themselves, for it is a basic problem, a part of the life

experience of every

human being

and therefore no one can give us the solution ready made for our acceptance. All that can be done by those who have really solved the problem, is to show to others the line along which they settle that question,

have found the solution, and thus direct the inquirer how he also may arrive at a conclusion.

That is the aim of this little hook; not to a solution to the problem of life to be taken blindly, on faith in the author's abil-

offer

The teachings herein ity of investigation. set forth are those handed down by the Great Western Mystery School of the Eosicrucian Order and are the result of the concurrent testimony of a long line of trained Seers given to the author and supplemented by his own independent investigation of the realms traversed by the spirit in its cyclic path from the invisible world to this plane of existence and back again. Nevertheless, the student is warned that the writer may have misunderstood some of the teachings and that despite the greatest care he may have taken a wrong view of that which he believes to have seen in the invisible world where the possibilities of making a mistake are legion. Here in the world which we view about us the forms are staple and do not easily change, but in the world around us which is perceptible only by the spiritual sight, we may say that there is in reality no form, but that all is life. At least the

THE BOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

forms are so changeable that the metamorphosis recounted in fairy stories is discounted there to an amazing degree, and therefore we have the surprising revelations of mediums and other untrained clairvoyants who, though they may be perfectly honest, are deceived by illusions of form which is evanescent, because they are incapable of viewing the life that is the permanent basis of that form. must learn to see in this world. The new-born babe has no conception of distance and will reach for things far, far beyond its grasp until it has learned to gauge its cablind man who acquires the facpacity. ulty of sight, or has it restored by an opera-

tion, will at first

be inclined to close his eyes

when moving from clare that

it is

place to place, and deeasier to walk by feeling than

sight, that is

because he has not learned

to use his ly

newly acquired faculty. Similarthe man whose spiritual vision has been

newly opened requires to be trained, in fact he is in much greater need thereof than the babe and the blind man already mentioned. Denied that training he would be like a newborn babe placed in a nursery where the walls are lined with mirrors of different

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND

ITS SOLUTION 33

convex and concave curvatures, which would distort its own shape and the forms of its attendants.

If allowed to

grow up

such surroundings and unable to see the real shapes of itself and its nurses it would naturally believe that it saw many different and distorted shapes where in reality the mirrors

were responsible for the

illusion. "Were the in an experiment concerned such persons and the child taken out of the illusory surroundings, it would be incapable of recognizing them until the matter had been There are similar properly explained.

dangers of illusion to those who have developed spiritual sight, until they have been trained to discount the refraction and to view the life which is permanent and staple, disregarding the form which is evanescent and changeable. The danger of getting things out of focus always remains however and is so subtle that the writer feels an imperative duty to warn his readers to take all

statements concerning the unseen world with the proverbial grain of salt, for he has no intention to deceive. He is therefore inclined rather to magnify than to minimize his limitations and would advise the student to accept nothing from the author 's pen

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

without reasoning it out for himself. Thus, if he is deceived, he will be self -deceived and the author is blameless. Three Theories of Life. three noteworthy theories have been Only offered as solutions to the riddle of existence and in order that the reader may be able to make the important choice between them, we will state briefly what they are and give some of the arguments which lead us to advocate the doctrine of Rebirth as the method which favors soul-growth and the ultimate attainment of perfection, thus offering the best solution to the problem of life. 1) THE MATERIALISTIC THEORY teaches that life is but a short journey from the cradle to the grave, that there is no higher intelligence in the universe than man; that his

mind

is produced by certain correlations of matter and that therefore death and disolution of the body terminate existence. There was a day when the arguments of

philosophers seemed convinas science advances it discovers more and more that there is a spiritual side to the universe. That life and consciousness may exist without being able to give us a sign, has been amply proven in the cases

Materialistic cing, but

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND

ITS SOLUTION 35

where a person who was entranced and thought dead for days has suddenly awakened and told all that had taken place around the body. Such eminent scientists as Sir Oliver Lodge, Camille Flammarion, Lambroso and other men of highest intelligence and scientific training, have unequivocally stated as the result of their investigations, that the intelligence which we cail man survives death of the body and lives on in our midst as independently of whether we see them or not as light and color exist all about the blind man regardless of the fact that he

does not perceive them. These scientists have reached their conclusion after years of careful investigation. They have found that the so-called dead can, and under certain circumstances do, communicate with us in such a manner that mistake is out of the question. We maintain that their testimony is worth more than the argument of materialism to the contrary, for it is based upon years of careful investigation, it is in harmony with such well established laws as the law of conservation of matter and the laiv of conserva-

Mind is a form of energy, and immune from destruction as claimed by tion of energy.

the materialist.

Therefore we

disbar

the

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

materialistic theory as unsound, because out of harmony with the laws of nature and with

well established facts.

THE THEORY

of THEOLOGY claims that each birth a soul is created by God and enters into the world where it lives for a time varying from a few minutes to a few score of years; that at the end of this short span of life it returns through the portal of death to the invisible beyond, where it remains forever in a condition of happiness or misery according to the deeds done 2)

just prior to

in the

body during the feiv years it lived here. Plato insisted upon the necessity of a clear definition of terms as a basis of argument and we contend that that is as necessary in discussing the problem of life from the Bible point of view as in arguments from the platonic standpoint. According to the Bible man is a composite being consisting of body, soul* and spirit. The two latter are usually taken to be synonymous, but we insist that they are not interchangeable and present the following to support our dictum. All things are in a state of vibration. Vibrations from objects in our surroundings are constantly impinging upon us and carry

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND

ITS SOLUTION 37

to our senses a cognition of the external world. The vibrations in the ether act upon our eyes so that we see, and vibrations in the air transmit sounds to the ear.

We also breathe the air and ether which is thus charged with pictures of our surroundings and the sounds in our environment, so that by means of the breath we receive at each moment of our life, internally an accurate picture of our external surroundings. That is a scientific proposition. Science does not explain what becomes of these vibrations however, but according to the Rosicrucian Mystery teaching they are transmitted to the blood, and then etched upon a little atom in the heart as automatically as a moving picture is imprinted upon the sensitized film, and a record of sounds is enThis graven upon the phonographic disc. breath-record starts with the first breath of the newborn babe and ends only with the last gasp of the dying man, and "soul" is a product of the breath. Genesis also shows the connection between breath and soul in the words: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (The same word: nephesh, is

THE KOSICBUCIAN MYSTEBIES

translated breath and soul in the above quotation.)

In the post mortem existence the breathrecord is disposed of. The good acts of life

produce feelings of pleasure and the intensity of attraction incorporates

them into the

spirit as soul-power. Thus the breath-records of our good acts are the soul tvhich is

saved, for by the union with the spirit they become immortal. As they accumulate life after life, we become more soulful and they are thus also the basis of soulgrowth. The record of our evil acts is also derived from our breath in the moments when

they were committed. The pain and suffering they bring cause the spirit to expel the breath-record from its being in Purgatory. As that cannot exist independently of the life-giving spirit, the breath-record of our sins disintegrates upon expurgation, and we see that "the soul that sinneth, it

thus

shall die."

The memory

of the suffering

incidental to expurgation however, remains with the spirit as conscience, to deter from

same evil in later lives. Thus both our good and evil acts are

repetition of the

re-

corded through the agency of the breath, which is therefore the basis of the soul, but

THE PROBLEM OF

LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION 39

while the breath-record of good acts amalgamates with the spirit and lives on forever as an immortal soul, the breath-record of evil deeds is disintegrated ; it is the soul that sinneth and dies. While the Bible teaches that immortality of the soul is conditional upon well-doing, it makes no distinction in respect of the spirit. The statement is clear and emphatic that when . . " The silver cord be loosed then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave .

it" Thus the Bible teaches that the body is made of dust and returns thereto, that a part of the soul generated in the breath is perishable, but that the spirit survives bodTherefore a ily death and persists forever. "lost soul" in the common acceptance of that term is not a Bible teaching, for the spirit is uncreate and eternal as God Himself, and therefore the orthodox theory cannot be true. THE THEORY OF REBIRTHS which teach3) es that each spirit is an integral part of God, enfolds all divine possibilities as the acorn enfolds the oak; that by means of many existences in an earthy body of gradthat

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

ually improving texture its latent powers are being slowly unfolded and become available as dynamic energy; that none can be lost but that all will ultimately attain to perfection and reunion with God, each bringing with it the accumulated experience which is the fruitage of its pilgrimage through matter.

Or, as

we may

poetically express

WE ABE On

it:

ETERNAL.

whistling stormcloud on Zephyrus wing, Spirit-choir loud the World-anthems ;

The

sing

Hark!

Lis't to their voice

"we have

passed

through death's door There's no Death; rejoice!

life lives

ever-

more."

We We

are, have always been, will ever be. are a portion of Eternity Older than Creation, a part of One Great

Whole, Is each Individual

and immortal Soul.

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND

ITS SOLUTION 41

On Time's

whirring loom our garments we've wrought Eternally weave we on network of Thought, Our kin and our country, by Mind brought to birth,

Were

patterned in heaven ere molded on

earth.

have shone in the Jewel and danced on the

Wave,

We have sparkled in Fire defying the grave

;

in size, kind

Through shapes everchanging, and name

Our

individual essence

And when we have

still is

the same.

reached to the highest of

all,

The gradations of growth our minds

shall

recall

So that

link

we may

join

them

to-

gether

And

trace step

by step the way we reached

thither.

Thus

in time

shall

What lifts, ennobles,

know,

only

right and

we do

true.

With kindness to all with malice to none, That in and through us God's will may be ;

done.

THE KOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

We there

venture to make the assertion that but one sin: Ignorance and but one

Applied Knowledge. Even the wisest among us know but little of what may be learned, however, and no one has attained to perfection, or can attain in one single short life, but we note that everywhere in nature slow persistent unfoldment makes for salvation:

higher and higher development of every thing and we call this process evolution. One of the chief characteristics of evolution lies in the fact that it manifests in alter-

nating periods of activity and

busy summer, when

rest.

The

things upon earth are themselves to exerting bring forth, is followed by the rest and inactivity of winter. The busy day alternates with the quiet of night. The ebb of the ocean is succeeded by the flood-tide. Thus, as all other things move in cycles, the life that expresses itself here upon earth for a few years is not to be though/ of as ended when death has been reached, but as surely as the sun rises in the morningafter having set at night, will the life that was ended by the death of one body be taken up again in a new vehicle and in a different environment. all

THE PROBLEM OF

LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION 43

This earth may in fact be likened to a school to which we return life after life to learn new lessons, as our children go to school day after day to increase their knowledge. The child sleeps through the which intervenes between two days at and the spirit also has its rest from life between death and a new birth.

night school active

There

are also different classes in this worldschool which correspond to the variou? grades from kindergarten to college. In the lower classes we find spirits who have gone to the school of life but a few times, they are savages now, but in time they will become wiser and better than we are, and we ourselves shall progress in future lives to spiritual heights of which we cannot even conceive at the present. If we apply ourselves to learn the lessons of life, we shall of course advance much faster in the school of life than if we dilly-dally and idle our time away. This, on the same principle which governs in one of our own institutions of learning.

are not here then, by the caprice of God. He has not placed one in clover and another in a desert nor has He given one a healthy body so that he may live at ease

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

from pain and other in rest

from

sickness, while

placed anwith never a

poor circumstances

But what we

pain.

account of our

are,

own

diligence or negligence, shall be in the future depends

and what we upon what we will to be and not upon Divine caprice or upon inexorable fate. No matter what the circumstances, it lies with us to master them, or to be mastered, as we will. Sir Edwin Arnold puts the teaching most beautifully in his "Light of Asia."

"The Books say

well,

Brothers! each

man's life The outcome of his former living is; The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes The bygone right breeds bliss.

********

Each has such lordship as the

loftiest ones

for with powers around, above, below

Nay As with

all flesh and whatsoever lives Act maketh joy or woe.

********

Who

toiled, a slave may come anew a prince gentle worthiness and merit won Who ruled, a king may wander earth in rags

For

For things done or undone."

THE PROBLEM OF Or, as an

LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION 45

unknown poet says:

"One

ship sails East and another sails West self same winds that blow. "Pis the set of the sail, and not the gale, Which determines the way they go.

With the

As the winds of the sea are the ways As we voyage along through life.

of fate

the soul, which determines the goal And not the calm or the strife.'* 'Tis the act of

When we

wish to engage someone to unwe choose some one

dertake a certain mission

whom we

think particularly fitted to fulfill the requirements and we must suppose that a Divine Being would use at least as much common sense, and not choose anyone to go Ids errand who was not fitted therefor. So when we read in the Bible that Samson was

foreordained to be the slayer of the Philistines and that Jeremiah was predestined to be a prophet, it is but logical to suppose that they must have been particularly suited to such occupation. John the Baptist also, was born to be a herald of the coming Savior and to preach the kingdom of God which take the place of the kingdom of men.

Had

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES these people had no previous train-

ing, how could they have developed such a fitness to fulfill their various missions, and

they had been fitted, how else could they have received their training if not in earlier

lives ?

Jews believed in the Doctrine of .tiebirth or they would not have asked John the Baptist if he were Elijah, as recorded in the The Apostles of fiist chapter of John. '.The

Christ also held the belief as

from the incident recorded in chapter of Mathew where the them the question: "Whom do I the Son of Man am?" The

we may see the sixteenth Christ asked

men say

that

Apostles replied: "Some say that Thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias and others Jeremias or one of the Prophets." Upon this occasion the Christ tacitly assented to the teaching of Rebirth because He did not correct the dis;

would have been His plain duty in His capacity as teacher, when the pupils enciples as

tertained a mistaken idea.

But to Nicodemus He said unequivocally: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" and in the eleventh chapter of Mathew, the fourteenth verse, He "this said, speaking of John the Baptist:

THE PKOBLEM OF LIFE AND

ITS SOLUTION 47

Elijah/' in the seventeenth chapter of Mathew, the twelfth verse, He said Elijah has come already and they knew him not, but have done to him whatsoever they listed, then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist.'* Thus we maintain that the Doctrine of Rebirth offers the only solution to the problem of life which is in harmony with the laws of is

' *

nature, which answers the ethical requirements of the case and permits us to love God

without blinding our reason to the inequaliand the varying circumstances which give to a few the ease and comfort, the health and wealth, which are denied to the ties of life

many.

The theory

of Heredity advanced by Maform, for as a

terialists applies only to the

carpenter uses material from a certain pile of lumber to build a house in which he afterwards lives, so does the spirit take the substance wherewith to build its house from the parents. The carpenter cannot build a house of hard wood from Spruce lumber and the spirit also must build a body which is like those from which the material was taken, but the theory of Heredity does not apply upon the moral plane, for it is a notorious fact, that in the rogues galleries of America and

THE BOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

Europe there is no case where both father and son are represented. Thus the sons of criminals, though they have the tendencies to crime, keep out of the clutches of the law.

Neither will Heredity hold good upon the plane of the intellect, for many cases may be cited where a genius and an idiot spring

from the same stock. The great Cuvier, whose brain was of about the same weight, as Daniel Webster's, and whose intellect was as great, had five children who all died of paresis, the brother of Alexander the Great was an idiot, and thus we hold that another solution must be found to account for the facts of

life.

The law of Rebirth coupled with

com-

its

panion law, the law of Causation does that. When we die after one life, we return to earth later, under circumstances determined by the manner in which we lived before. The gambler is drawn to pool parlors and race tracks to associate with others of like taste, the musician is attracted to the concert halls

and music

studios,

the returning likes

ents

and

Ego

spirits,

also carries with

which cause the class to which

dislikes

among

by congenial it it

and

it its

to seek par-

belongs.

But then someone

will point to cases

where

find people of entirely opposite tastes living lives of torture, because grouped in the

same family, and forced by circumstances to stay there contrary to their wills. But that does not vitiate the law in the slightest, in each life we contract certain obligations which cannot then be fulfilled. Perhaps we have ran away from a duty such as the care of an invalid relative and have met death without coming to a realization of our mistake. That relative upon the other hand may have suffered severely from our neglect, and have stored up a bitterness against us before death terminates the suffering. Death and the subsequent removal to another environment does not pay our debts from this life, any more than the removal from the city where we now live to another place will pay the debts we have contracted prior to our removal. It is therefore quite possible that the two who have injured each other as described, may find themselves members of the same family. Then, whether they remember the past grudge or not, the old enmity will assert itself and cause them to hate anew until the consequent discomfort forces them to tolerate each other, and per-

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTEBIBS

haps later they

may

learn to love where they

hated.

The question also arises in the mind of inquirers: If we have been here before why do we not remember? And the answer is, that while most people are not aware of how their previous existences were spent, there are others who have a very distinct recollection of previous lives. A friend of the writer's for instance, when living in France, one day started to read to her son about a certain city where they were then going upon a bicycle tour, and the boy exclaimed: you do not need to tell me about that mother. I know that city, I lived there and was killed He then commenced to describe the city and Later he took his also a certain bridge. mother to that bridge and showed her the spot where he had met death centuries before. Another friend travelling in Ireland saw a scene which she recognized and she also described to the party the scene around the bend of the road which she had never seen in this life, so it must have been a memory from a previous life. Numerous other instances could be given where such minor flashes of memory reveal to us glimpses from a past life. The verified case in which a lit!

THE PBOBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION

three year old girl in Santa Barbara described her life and death has been given in the Eosicrucian Cosmo Conception. It is perhaps the most conclusive evidence as it hinges on the veracity of a child too young tie

to have learned deception. This theory of life does not rest

ulation however,

it is

one of the

upon

spec-

first facts

demonstrated to the pupil of a Mystery He is taught to watch a child in the act of dying, also, to watch it in the invisible world from day to day, until it comes to a new birth a year or two later. Then he knows with absolute certainty that we returm to earth to reap in a future life what we now life

school.

sow.

The reason for taking a child to watch in preference to an adult, is, that the child is reborn very quickly, for its short life on eartk has borne but few fruits and these are soon assimilated, while the adult who has lived a long

life,

and had much experience remains in

the invisible worlds for centuries, so that the pupil could not watch him from death to rebirth. The cause of infant mortality will be explained later, here we merely desire to emphasize the fact that it is within the range of possibilities of every one without excep-

THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTEBIES

become able to know at first hand that which is here taught. The average interval between two earthlives is about a thousand years. It is determined by the movement of the sun known tion to

to astronomers as precession of the equinox,

by which the sun moves through one of the signs of the Zodiac in about 2100 years. During that time the conditions upon earth have changed so much that the spirit will find entirely new experiences here, and therefore it returns.

The Great Leaders tain the

maximum

of evolution always obfrom each condi-

benefit

tion designed by them, and as the experiences in the same social conditions are very different in the case of a man from what they are for a woman, the human spirit takes birth twice during the 2100 years measured by the precession of the equinox as already explained, it is born once as a man and another time as a woman. Such is the rule, but it is subject to whatever modifications may be necessary to facilitate reaping what the spirit has sown, as required under the law of Causation which works hand in hand with the law of Rebirth. Thus, at times a spirit may be brought to birth long ere the thousand

THE PBOBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION

years have expired, in order to fulfill a certain mission, or it may be detained in the invisible worlds after the time when it should

have come to birth according to the strict requirements of a blind law. The laws of nature are not that however. They are Great Intelligences who always subordinate minor considerations to higher ends, and under their beneficent guidance we are constantly progressing from life to life under conditions exactly suited to each individual, until in time we shall attain to a higher evolution and be-

come Supermen. Oliver Wendell Holmes has so beautifully voiced that aspiration and its consummation in the lines:

"Build thee more stately mansions Oh!

soul,

the swift seasons

roll,

Leave thy low-vaulted past Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more ;

vast. Till at length

thou art free,

Leaving thy outgrown ing sea."

shell

life 's

unrest-

CHAPTER III.

BtBtbb

atth

Jtmtstbb

TEE CHEMICAL REGION. If one

who

his spiritual

capable of consciously using body with the same facility that is

we now use our physical vehicles should glide away from the earth into interplanetary space, the earth and the various other planets of our solar system would appear to him to be composed of three kinds of matter,

The densest matter, roughly speaking. which is our visible earth, would appear to him as being the center of the

ball

as the

yolk is in the center of an egg. Around that neucleus he would observe a finer grade of matter similarly disposed in relation to the central mass, as the white of the egg is disposed outside the yolk. Upon a little closer investigation he would also discover that this second kind of substance permeates the solid 54

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WOBLD

earth to the very center, even as the blood percolates through the more solid parts of our flesh. Outside both of these mingling layers of matter he would observe a still finer, third layer corresponding to the shell of the egg, except that this third layer is the finest most subtile of the three grades of matter, and that it inter-penetrates both of the two inner layers.

As already ually

said, the central mass, spiritour visible world, composed of

seen, is

and gases. They constitute atmosphere, and also the ether,

solids, liquids

the earth, its of which physical science speaks hypothetically as permeating the atomic substance of all chemical elements. The second layer of matter is called the Desire World and the outermost layer is called the World of

Thought.

reflection upon the subject will clear that just such a constitution Is make necessary to account for facts of life as we little

All forms in the world about us are built from chemical substances: solids, liquids and gases, but in so far that they do move, these forms obey a separate and dissee them.

and when this impelling energy leaves, the form becomes inert. The steam

tinct impulse,

THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTEBCES

engine rotates under the impetus of an inBefore steam filled its cylinder, the engine stood still, and when the impelling force is shut off its motion visible gas called steam.

again ceases.

The dynamo

rotates under

the still more subtile influence of an electric current which may also cause the click of a telegraph instrument or the ring of an electric bell, but the dynamo ceases its swift whirl and the persistent ring of the electric bell becomes mute when the invisible electricThe form of the bird ity is switched off. the animal and the human being also cease their motion when the inner force which we call life

has winged

its invisible

way.

All forms are impelled into motion by desire: the bird and the animal roam land and air in their desire to secure food and shelter, or for the purpose of breeding, man is also moved by these desires, but has in addition other and higher incentives to spur him to effort, among them is desire for rapidity of motion which led him to construct the steam engine and other devices that move in obedience to his desire.

were no iron in the mountains could not build machines. If there were no clay in the soil, the bony structure of the If there

man

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WORLD 57

skeleton would be' an impossibility, and there were no Physical World at all, with

its

and gases, this dense body of ours could never have come into existence. Reasoning along similar lines it must be at once apparent that if there were no Desire World composed of desire-stuff, we should have no way of forming feelings, emotions solids, liquids

planet composed of the maperceive with our physical eyes and of no other substances, might be the home of plants which grow unconsciously, but have no desires to cause them to move.

and

desires.

terials

The human and animal kingdoms however, would be

impossibilities.

Furthermore, there

is in

the world a vast

number of things, from the simplest and most crude instruments, to the most intricate and cunning devices which have been constructed by the hand of man. These reveal the fact of man's thought and ingenuity. Thought must have a source as well as form and feeling. We saw that it was necessary have the requisite material in order to build a steam engine or a body and we reasoned from the fact that in order to obtain material to express desire there must also be to

a world composed of desire

stuff.

Carrying

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTEBIES

our argument to its logical conclusion, we also hold that unless a World of Thought provides a reservoir of mind stuff upon which we may draw, it would be impossible for us to think and invent the things which we see in even the lowest civilization. Thus it will be clear that the division of a planet into worlds is not based on fanciful metaphysical speculation, but is logically necessary in the economy of nature. Therefore it must be taken into consideration by any one who would study and aim to understand the inner nature of things. When we see the street cars moving along our streets, it does not explain to say that the motor is driven by electricity of so many amperes at so many volts. These names only add to our confusion until we have thoroughly studied the science of electricity and then we shall find that the

mystery deepens, for while the

street car belongs to the world of inert form perceptible to our vision, the electric cur-

rent which moves it is indigenous to the realm of force, the invisible Desire World, and the thought which created and guides it, comes from the still more subtile World of Thought which is the home world of the human spirit, the Ego.

THB VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WOKLD

be objected that this line of argument makes a simple matter exceedingly intricate, but a little reflection will soon show the fallacy of such a contention. Viewed It

may

superficially

any of the

sciences

tremely simple; anatomically

seem ex-

we may

divide

the body into flesh and bone, chemically we may make the simple divisions between solid, liquid and gas, but to thoroughly master the science of

necessary to spend years in close application and learn to know all the little nerves, the ligaments which form articulations between various parts of

anatomy

it is

the

bony structure, to study the several kinds of tissue and their disposition in our system where they form the bones, muscles, glands, etc., which in the aggregate we know as

the

human

stand the

body.

science

To properly underchemistry we must

study the valence of the atom which determines the power of combination of the various elements, together with other niceties, such as atomic weight, density, etc.

New wonders

are constantly opening up to the most experienced chemist, who understands best the immensity of his chosen science.

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTEBIES

The youngest lawyer, fresh from law knows more about the most intricate in his own estimation, than the judges cases, the Supreme Court bench who spend upon school

long hours, weeks and months, seriously deBut those liberating over their decisions. who, without having studied, think they understand and are fitted to discourse upon the greatest of all sciences, the science of Life and Being, make a greater mistake. After years of patient study, of holy life spent in close application, a man is oftentimes perplexed at the immensity of the subject he studies. He finds it to be so vast in both the direction of the great and small that

baffles description, that language and that the tongue must remain mute. Therefore we hold, (and we speak from knowledge gained through years of close study and investigation), that the finer distinctions which we have made, and shall make, are not at all arbitrary, but absolutely necessary as are divisions and distinctions made in anatomy or chemistry. No form in the physical world has feeling it

fails,

in the true sense of that word.

It is the in-

feels, as we may readily dwelling see from the fact that a body which respondlife

which

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WOULD

ed to the slightest touch while instinct with life, exhibits no sensation whatever even when cut to pieces after the life has fled. Demonstrations have been made by scientists, particularly by Professor Bose of Calcutta, to show that there is feeling in dead animal tissue and even in tin and other metal, but we maintain that the diagrams which seem to support his contentions in reality demonstrate only a response to impacts similar to the rebound of a rubber ball, and that must not be confused with such feelings as love, Goethe also, hate, sympathy and aversion. in his novel "Elective Affinities," (Wahlverwandtschaft), brings out some beautiful wherein he makes it seem as if atoms loved and hated, from the fact that some elements combine readily while other substances refuse to amalgamate, a phenomenon produced by the different rates of speed at which various elements vibrate and illustrations

an unequal inclination of their axes. Only where there is sentient life can there be feelings of pleasure and pain, sorrow or joy.

The Etheric Region. In addition to the solids, liquids and gases which compose the Chemical Region of the

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTBBIES

World there is also a finer grade of matter called Ether, which permeates the atomic structure of the earth and its atmosPhysical

phere substantially as science teaches. Scientists have never seen, nor have they weighed, measured or analyzed this substance, but they infer that it must exist in order to account for transmission of light and various other phenomena. If it were possible for us to live in a room from which the air had been exhausted we might speak at the top of our voices, we might ring the largest bell or we might even discharge a' cannon close to our ear and we should hear no sound, for air is the medium which transmits sound vibrations to the tympanum of our ear, and that would be lacking. But if an electric light were lighted, we should at once perceive its rays; it would illumine the

room despite the lack of air. Hence there must be a substance, capable of being set into vibration, between the electric light and our eyes. That medium scientists call ether, but it is so subtile that no instrument has been devised whereby it may be measured or analyzed and therefore the scientists are without much information concerning it, though forced to postulate its existence.

We do not seek to belittle the achievements of

modern

scientists,

we have

the greatest

admiration for them and we entertain high expectations of what ambitions they may yet realize, but we perceive a limitation in the fact, that all

of the past have the invention of wonderful in-

discoveries

been made by struments applied in a most ingenious manner to solve seemingly insoluble and baf-

fling problems. The strength of science lies vested in its instruments, for the scientist may say to anyone: Go, procure a number

of glasses ground in a certain manner, inthem in a tube, direct that tube toward

sert

a certain point in the sky where now nothing appears to your naked eye. You will then If his see a beautiful star called Uranus. directions are followed, anyone is quickly and without preparation, able to demonstrate for himself the truth of the scientist's assertion. But while the instruments of science are its tower of strength they also mark the end of of investigation, for it is impossible to contact the spirit world with physical instruments, so the research of occultists begins where the physical scientist finds his its field

limit

and are carried on by spiritual means.

THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTEEIES

These investigations are as thorough and as

as researches by material but not as easily demonstrable to scientists, the general public. Spiritual powers lie dormant within every human being, and when awakened, they compensate for both telescope and microscope, they enable their reliable

possessor to investigate, instanter, things beyond the veil of matter, but they are only developed by a patient application and continuance in well doing extended over years, and few are they who have faith to start upon the path to attainment or perseverance to go through with the ordeal. Therefore the occultist's assertions

are not generally cred-

ited.

We can readily see that long probation must precede attainment, for a person equipped with spiritual sight is able to penetrate walls of houses as easily as we walk through the atmosphere, able to read at will the innermost thoughts, of those about him, if not actuated by the most pure and unselfish motives, would become a scourge to humanity. Therefore that power is safeguarded as we would withhold the dynamite bomb from an anarchist and from the well-intentioned but

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WOBLD

ignorant person, or, as we withhold match and powder barrel from a child. In the hands of an experienced engineer the dynamite bomb may be used to open a highway of commerce, and an intelligent farmer may use gunpowder to good account in clearing his field of tree-stumps, but in the hands of an illintentioned criminal or ig^

norant child an explosive may wreck much property and end many lives. The force is the same, but used differently, according to the ability or intention of the user, it may produce results of a diametrically opposite nature. So it is also with spiritual powers, there is a time-lock upon them, as upon a

bank

safe, which keeps out all until they have earned the privilege and the time is ripe for

its exercise.

already said, the ether

physical mat-

and responsive to the same laws which govern other physical substances upon this

ter

Therefore it requires plane of existence. but a slight extension of physical sight to see ether, (which is disposed in four grades of density), the blue haze seen in mountain canyons is in fact ether of the kind known to occult investigators as 'chemical ether.' Many people who see this ether, are un-

THE

ROSICRTJCIAN MYSTERIES

aware that they are possessed of a faculty not enjoyed by all. Others, who have developed spiritual sight are not endowed with etheric vision, a fact which seems an

anomaly

until the subject of clairvoyance is

thoroughly understood. The reason is, that as ether

physical matter, etheric sight depends upon the sensitiveness of the optic nerve while spiritual sight is acquired by developing latent vibratory powers in two little organs situated in the brain: the Pituitary body and the Pineal is

gland. Nearsighted people even, may have etheric vision. Though unable to read the print in a book, they may be able to "see through a wall,*' owing to the fact that their optic nerve responds more rapidly to fine than to coarse vibrations. When anyone views an object with etheric sight he sees through that object in a manner similar to the way an x-ray penetrates opaque substances, ft he looks at a sewing machine, he will perceive; first an outer casing; then, the works within, and behind both, the casing furthest away from him. If he has developed the grade of spiritual

vision which opens the Desire World to at the same object, he will

him and he looks

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD

If he looks closeit both inside and out. little atom spinhe will perceive every ly, and no its axis part or particle ning upon from be excluded his will perception. But if his spiritual sight has been developed in such a measure that he is capable of viewing the sewing machine with the vision peculiar to the World of Thought, he will behold a cavity where he had previously seen the form. Things seen with etheric vision are very

see

much

alike in color, they are nearly reddishblue, purple or violet, according to the den-

when we view any obwith the spiritual sight pertaining to ject the Desire World, it scintillates and coruscates in a thousand ever changing colors so indescribably beautiful that they can only be compared to living fire, and the writer sity of the ether, but

therefore calls

this grade of vision color when but the spiritual vision of the sight, World of Thought is the medium of perception, the seer finds that in addition to still

more beautiful

colors, there issues

from the

cavity described a constant flow of a certain

harmonious

we now

tone.

Thus

this

world wherein

consciously live and which we perceive by means of our physical senses is pre-

THE KOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

eminently the world of form, the Desire

World is particularly the world of color and World of Thought is the realm of tone.

the

Because of the relative proximity or distance of these worlds, a statue, a form, withstands the ravages of time for millenniums, but the colors upon a painting fade in far shorter time, for they come from the Desire World, and music which is native to the World furthest removed from us, the World of Thought, is like a will-o-the-wisp which none may catch or hold, it is gone again as But soon as it has made its appearance. there is in color and music a compensation for this increasing evanescence. The statue is cold and dead as the mineral of which it is composed and has attractions for but few though its form is a tangible reality.

The forms upon a painting are

illusory

on account of the color which has come from a region where nothing is inert and lifeless. Therefore the painting is enjoyed by many. Music is intangible and ephemeral, but it comes from the home world of the spirit and yet they express

life,

though so fleeting it it

recognized by the spirfrom the celestial

as a soul-speech fresh

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WOBLD

realms, an echo from the home whence we are now exiled, and therefore it touches a cord in our being, regardless of whether we realize the true cause or not. Thus we see that there are various grades of spiritual sight, each suited to the superphysical realm which it opens to our perception: Etheric vision, color vision and tonal vision. The occult investigator finds that ether is of four kinds, or grades of density:

The Chemical Ether, The Life Ether, The Light Ether, The Eeflecting Ether. The Chemical Ether

the avenue of ex-

pression for forces promoting assimilation, growth and the maintenance of form. The Life Ether is the vantage ground of i forces active in propagation, or the building

new forms. The Light Ether transmits the motive power of the sun along the various nerves of living bodies and makes motion possible. The Reflecting Ether receives an impression of all that is, lives and moves. It also of

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

records each change, in a similar manner as the film upon a moving picture machine. In this record mediums and psychometrists may read the past, upon the same principle as,

under proper conditions, moving pictures

are reproduced time and again. We have been speaking of ether as an avenue of forces, a word which conveys no meaning to the average mind, because force

But

an occult investigator the forces are not merely names such as is

invisible.

steam, electricity,

etc.

finds

them

to be in-

varying grades, both sub and superhuman. What we call laws of nature," are great intelligences which guide more elemental beings in accordance with telligent beings of

1 1

certain rules designed to further their evolution.

In the Middle Ages, when many people were still endowed with a remnant of negaspoke of Gnomes and Elves or Fairies, which roamed about the mountains and forests. These were the earth spirits. They also told of the Undine or wafersprite, which inhabited rivers and streams, of Sylphs which were said to dwell in the mists above moat and moor, as air spirits, but not much was said of the Salative clairvoyance, they

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

manders, as they are,

fire spirits,

WORLD

and there-

fore not so easily detected, or so readily accessible to the majority of people. The old folk stories are now regarded as superstitions, but as a matter of fact, one endowed with etheric vision may yet perceive the little gnomes building green chlor-

ophyl into the leaves of plants and giving to flowers

the

multiplicity

delicate

tints

which delight our eyes. Scientists have attempted time and again to offer an adequate explanation of the phenomenon of wind and storm but have failed signally, nor can they succeed while they seek a mechanical solution to what is really a manifestation of life. Could they see the hosts of sylphs

winging their way hither thither, they would know who and what is responsible for the fickleness of the wind could they watch a storm at sea from the etheric view-point they would perceive that the saying "the war of the elements" is not an empty phrase, for the heaving sea is truly then a battlefield of sylphs and undines and

and

;

the howling tempest is the war cry of spirits in the air. Also the salamanders are found every-

where and no

fire

lighted

without their

THE ROSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

are mostly active underare responsible for exploground. They sions and volcanic eruptions. help,

but

they

The classes of beings which we have mentioned are still sub-human, but will all at some time reach a stage in evolution corresponding to the human, though under different circumstances from those under which evolve.

But

ligences

we speak

at present the wonderful intelof as the laws of nature,

marshall the armies of less evolved entities mentioned. To arrive at a better understanding of what these various beings are, and their relation to us, we may take an illustration: Let us suppose that a mechanic is making an engine, and meanwhile a dog is watching him. It sees the man at his labor, and how he uses various tools to shape his materials, also how, from the crude iron, steel, brass and other metals the engine slowly takes shape. The dog is a being from a lower evolution and does not comprehend the purpose of the mechanic but it sees both the workman, his labor and the result thereof, which manifests as an engine. Let us now suppose that the dog were only able to see the materials which slowly

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD

change their shape, assemble and become an engine but that

unable to perceive the work he does. The dog would then be in the same relation to the mechanic as we are to the great intelligences we call laws of nature, and their assistants, the nature spirits, for we behold the manifestations of their work as force moving matter in various ways but always under

workman and

it is

to see the

immutable conditions. In the ether we may also observe the angels, whose densest body is made of that material, as our dense body is formed of gases, liquids and solids. These beings are one step beyond the human stage, as we are a degree in advance of the animal evolution. We have never been animals like our present fauna, however, but at a previous stage in the development of our planet we had an animal-like constitution. Then the angels

were human, though they have never possessed a dense body such as ours, nor ever functioned in any material denser than ether. At some time, in a future condition, the earth will again become ethereal. Then

man

will be like the angels. Therefore the Bible tells us that man was made a little while lower than the angels (Paul's letter to

74 the Hebrews, second chapter, seventh verse; see marginal reading.) As ether is the avenue of vital, creative forces, and as angels are such expert builders of ether, we may readily understand that

they are eminently fitted to be warders of the propagative forces in plant, animal and man. All through the Bible we find them thus engaged: Two angels came to Abraham

and announced the birth of Isaac, they promised a child to the man who had obeyed God. Later these same angels destroyed Sodom for abuse of the creative force. Angels foretold to the parents of Samuel and Samson, the birth of these giants of brain and brawn. To Elizabeth came the angel (not archangel), Gabriel and announced the birth of John, later he appeared also to Mary with the message that she was chosen to bear Jesus.

The Desire World.

When

spiritual

sight

developed

becomes possible to behold the Desire World, many wonders confront the newcom-

that

er,

for conditions are so widely different

from what they are here, that a description must sound quite as incredible as a fairy tale to

anyone who has not himself seen them.

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD

Many cannot even believe that such a world exists, and that other people can see that which is invisible to them, yet some people are blind to the beauties of this world which we see. A man who was born blind, may say to us I know that this world exists, I can hear, I can smell, I can taste and above all I can feel but when you speak of light and of color, they are nonexistent to me. You say that you see these things, I cannot believe it for I cannot see myself. You say that light and color are all about me, but none of the senses at my command reveal them to me and I do not believe that :

the sense you call sight exists. suffer from hallucinations.

I think you

might sym-

pathize very sincerely with the poor man who is thus afflicted, but his scepticism, reasonings and objections and sneers notwithstanding we would be obliged to maintain that we perceive light and color.

The man whose

spiritual sight has been a similar position with respect to those who do not perceive the De-

awakened sire

man

is in

World

of which he speaks. If the blind acquires the faculty of sight by an op-

eration, his eyes are opened and he will be compelled to assert the existence of light and

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

he formerly denied, and when is acquired by anyone, he alsight spiritual so perceives for himself the facts related by color which

Neither is it an argument against others. the existence of spiritual realms that seers are at variance in their descriptions of conditions in the invisible world. need but to

look into books on travel, and compare stories brought home by explorers of China, India or Africa and we shall find them differ-

ing widely and often contradictory, because each traveler saw things from his own standpoint, under other conditions than those met by his brother authors, and we maintain that the man who has read most widely these varying tales concerning a certain Country and wrestled with the contradictions of narrators, will have a more comprehensive idea of the country or people of whom he has read, than the man who has only read one story assented to by all the authors. Similarly, the varying stories of visitors to the Desire World are of value, because giving a fuller view, and more rounded, than if all had seen things from the same angle. In this world matter and force are widely different.

here

The

is inertia:

chief characteristic of matter

the tendency to remain at

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WOBLD

upon by a force which sets it In the Desire World, on the contrary, force and matter are almost indistinguishable one from the other. We might alrest until acted in motion.

most describe

desire-stuff

as force-matter,

in incessant motion, responsive to the slightest feeling of a vast multitude of

for

it is

beings which populate this wonderful world in nature. often speak of the "teeming millions" of China and India, even of our vast cities, London, New York, Paris or Chicago, we consider them overcrowded in the extreme, yet even the densest population of any spot upon earth is sparsely inhabited compared with the crowded conditions of the Desire World. No inconvenience is felt by any of the denizens of that realm, however, for, while in this world two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time, it is number of people and different there.

same place at the may same time and be engaged in most diverse activities, regardless of what others are doexist in the

things

ing,

such

stuff.

the wonderful elasticity of desire

As an

illustration

we may mention a

case where the writer while attending religious service, plainly perceived at the altar certain beings interested in furthering that

78 service and working to achieve that end. At the same time there drifted through the room and the altar, a table at which four persons were engaged in playing cards. They were as oblivious to the existence of the beings

en-

gaged in furthering our religious service, as though these did not exist. The Desire World is" the abode of those who have died, for some time subsequent to that event, and we may mention in the above connection that the so-called 'dead' very often stay for a long while friends.

Unseen by

among their still living their relatives they go

about the familiar rooms.

first

they are

unaware of the condition mentioned: "that two persons may be in the same place at the same time," and when they seat themoften

selves in a chair or at the table, a living relative may take the supposedly vacant seat.

The man we mistakenly

call

dead

will at first

hurry out of his seat to escape being sat upon, but he soon learns that being sat upon does not hurt him in his altered condition, and that he may remain in his chair regardless of the fact that his living relative is

also sitting

there.

In the lower regions of the Desire World the whole body of each being may be seen, but

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD

in the highest regions only the head seems to remain. Raphael, wno like many other people in the middle ages was gifted with a socalled second sight, pictured that condition for us in his Sistine Madonna, now in the

Dresden Art Gallery, where Madonna and the Christ-child are represented as floating

and surrounded by a host of genie-heads conditions which the occult investigator knows to be in harmony with actual facts. in a golden atmosphere :

Among

the entities

who

are, so to speak,

'native' to that realm of nature, none are perhaps better known to the Christian world

than the Archangels. These exalted Beings were human at a time in the earth's history when we were yet plant-like. Since then we have advanced two steps through the animal :

human

stage of development. The present Archangels have also made two steps in progression one, in which they were sim-

and

to the

;

what the angels are now, and another step which made them what we call Arch-

ilar to

angels.

Their densest body, though differing from ours in shape, and made of desire stuff, is used by them as a vehicle of consciousness in the same manner that we use our body. They

THE

KOSICBUCIAST MYSTERIES

are expert manipulators of forces in the Desire World, and these forces, as we shall see, move all the world to action. Therefore the Archangels work with humanity industrially and politically as arbitrators of the destiny of peoples and nations. The Angels may be said to be family -spirits whose mission is to unite a few spirits as members of a family, and cement them with ties of blood and love of kin, while the Archangels may be called race and national spirits, as they unite whole nations by patriotism or love of home and country. They are responsible for the rise and fall of nations, they give war or peace, victory or defeat as it serves the best interests of the people they rule. This we may see, for instance, from the book of Daniel, where the Archangel Michael (not to be confounded with the Michael, who is ambassador from the sun to the earth), is called the prince of the children of Israel. Another Archangel tells Daniel, (in the tenth chapter) that he intends to fight the prince of Persia by means of the Greeks.

There are varying grades of intelligence beings, some are qualified to hold high and lofty positions entirely beyond the ability of others. So it is also among

among human

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD 81

higher beings, not all Archangels are fitted to govern a nation and rule the destiny of a race, people or tribe, some are not fitted to rule human beings at all, but as the animals also have a desire nature these lower grades of Archangels govern the animals as groupspirits and evolve to higher capacity thereby.

The work of the race spirits is readily observable in the people it governs. The lower in the scale of evolution {he people, the more they show a certain racial likeness. That is due to the work of the race spirit. One national spirit is responsible for the swarthy complexion common to Italians, for instance, while another causes the Scandinavians to be blond. In the more advanced types of humanity, there is a wider divergence from the common type, due to the individualized Ego, which thus expresses in form and feature its

own

particular idiosyncrasies.

Among

the-

lower types of humanity such as Mongolians, native African Negroes and South Sea Islanders, the resemblance of individuals in each tribe makes it almost impossible for civilized Westerners to distinguish between them. Among animals, where the separate spirit is not individualized and self-conscious, the resemblance in not only much more

THE

EOSICBUCIAIST MYSTERIES

marked physically but extends even to traits and characteristics. We may write the biography of a man, for the experiences of each from that of others and his acts are different, but we cannot write the biography of an animal for members of each tribe all act alike under similar circumstances. If we de-

varies

the facts about Edward VII, it us profit nothing to study the life of the Prince-Consort, his father, or of George III, his son, as both would be entirely different from Edward. In order to find out what manner of man he was, we must study his own individual life. If, on the other hand, we wish to know the characteristics of beavers, we may observe any individual of the sire to

know

would

tribe,

and when we have studied

shall

crasies, tribe of beavers.

know

its idiosynthe traits of the whole

What we

call 'instinct,' is

in reality the dictates of group-spirits

govern separate individuals telepathically, as it were.

its

which tribe

The ancient Egyptians knew of these animal group spirits and sketched many of them, in a crude way, upon their temples and tombs. Such figures with a human body and an animal head actually live in the desire world. They may be spoken to, and will be

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD 83

found much more intelligent than the average human being. That statement brings up another peculiarity of conditions in the Desire World in respect of language. Here in this World hu-

man

speech is so diversified that there are countries where people who live only a few miles apart speak a dialect so different that they understand each other with great difficulty, and each nation has its own language that varies altogether from the speech of other peoples.

In the lower Regions of the Desire World, there is the same diversity of tongues as on earth, and the so-called 'dead' of one nation find it impossible to converse with those who lived in another country. Hence linguistic accomplishments are of great value to the 'Invisible Helpers', of whom we shall hear sphere of usefulness is enorm-

later, as their

ously extended by that ability. Even apart from difference of language our mode of speech is exceedingly productive of misunderstandings. The same words often convey most opposite ideas to different minds. If we speak of a "body of water", one person may think we mean a lake of small dimensions, the thoughts of another may be

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

directed to the great American Lakes and a third person's thoughts may be turned to-

wards the Atlantic or

Pacific Oceans.

speak of a "light", one may think of a gasanother of an electric Arc-lamp, or if we say "red", one person may think we mean a delicate shade of pink and another gets the light,

idea of crimson.

The misunderstandings

what words mean goes even

of illusas farther,

trated in the following. The writer once opened a reading room in a large city where he lectured, and invited his audience to make use thereof. Among those who availed themselves of the opportunity was a gentleman who had for many years been a veritable "metaphysical tramp," roaming from lecture to lecture, hearing the teachings of everybody and practicing nothing. Like the Athenians on Mars' Hill, he was always looking for something "new," particularly in the line of phenomena, and his mind was in that seething chaotic state which is one of the most prominent symptoms of

mental indigestion. J ' Having attended a number of our lectures he knew from the program that: "The lecturer does not give readings, or cast horoscopes for pay." But seeing on the door of ' '

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WOKLD

the newly opened reading room, the legend: "Free Beading Boom," his erratic mind at once jumped to the conclusion that although we were opposed to telling fortunes for pay, we were now going to give free readings of the future in the Free Beading Boom. He much was disappointed that we did not intend to tell fortunes, either gratis or for a consideration, and we changed our sign to "Free Library" in order to obviate a repetition of the error.

In the higher Begions of the Desire World the confusion of tongues gives place to a uni-

mode of expression which absolutely prevents misunderstandings of our meaning. There each of our thoughts takes a definite versal

form and

color perceptible to all, and this thought-symbol emits a certain tone, which is

not a word, but it conveys our meaning to the one we address no matter what language -he

spoke on earth.

To arrive at an understanding of how such a universal language becomes possible and is at once comprehended by all, without preparation, we may take as an illustration the manner in which a musician reads music. German or a Polish composer may write an opera. Each has his own peculiar terminol-

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

it in his own language. opera is to be playe'd by an Italian band master, or by a Spanish or American musician, it need not be translated, the notes and symbols upon the page are a universally understood language of symbols which is intelligible to musicians of no matter what nationality. Similarly with figures, the German counts ein, zwei, drei the Frenchman says un, deux, trois, and in English we use the words one, two, three, but the figures 1, 2, 3, though differently spoken, are intelligible to all and mean the same. There is no possibil-

ogy and expresses

When that

;

ity of misunderstanding in the cases of either music or figures. Thus it is also with the universal language peculiar to the higher Regions of the Desire World and the still more subtile realms in nature, it is intelligible to all, an exact mode of expression.

Returning to our description of the entities in the lower Desire World, we may note that other systems of religion than the Egyptian, already mentioned, has spoken of various classes of beings native

commonly met with

of these realms. The Zoroastrian Religion, for instance, mentions Seven Ameshaspends and the Izzards as having dominion over certain days in the month and certain months in

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

the year.

The Christian

WOELD

religion speaks of

Seven Spirits before the Throne, which are the same beingstthe Persians called Ameshaspends. Each of them rules over two mouths in the year while the seventh: Michael, the highest, is their leader, for he is ambassador

from the sun to the earth, the others are ambassadors from the planets. The Catholic reabundant occult information takes most notice of these 'star-angels' and knows considerable about their influence upon ligion with its

the affairs of the earth.

The Ameshaspends, however, do not inhabthe lower Regions of the Desire World but influence the Izzards. According to the old Persian legend these beings are divisible into one group of twenty-eight classes, and another group of three classes. Each of these classes has dominion over, or takes the lead of all the other classes on one certain day of the month. They regulate the weather conditions on that day and work with animal and man in particular. At least the twenty-eight classes do that, the other group of three classes it

has nothing to do with animals, because they have only twenty-eight pair of spinal nerves, Thus while human beings have thirty-one. animals are attuned to the lunar month of

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

twenty-eight days, while man is correlated to the solar month of thirty or thirty-one days. The ancient Persians were astronomers but

not physiologists, they had no means of knowing the different nervous constitution of animal and man, but they saw clairvoyantly these superphysical beings, they noted and recorded their work with animal and men and our own anatomical investigations may show us the reason for these divisions of the classes of Izzards recorded in that ancient

system of philosophy. Still another class of beings should be mentioned: those who have entered the Desire World through the gate of death and are now hidden from our physical vision. These so-called 'dead' are in fact

than any of

us,

who

much more

alive

are tied to a dense body its limitations, who are

and subject to all forced to slowly drag this clog along with us at the rate of a few miles an hour, who must expend such an enormous amount of energy upon propelling that vehicle that we are easily and quickly tired, even when in the best of health and who are often confined to a bed, sometimes for years, by the indisposition of this heavy mortal coil. But when that is once shed and the freed spirit

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WOBXD 89

can again function in its spiritual body, sickis an unknown condition and distance

ness

annihilated, or at least practically so, for though it was necessary for the Savior to is

liken the freed spirit to the wind which blows where it listeth, that simile gives but a poor

description of what actually takes place in soul flights. Time is nonexistent there, as we shall presently explain, so the writer ha, never been able to time himself, but has on several occasions timed others when he was in the physical body and they speeding through space upon a certain errand. Distances such as from the Pacific Coast to Europe, the delivery of a short message there and the return to the body has been accomplished in slightly less than one minute. Therefore our assertion, that those whom we call dead are in reality much more alive than we, is well founded in facts.

spoke of the dense body in which we as a 'clog" and a "fetter." It must

now live,

not be inferred, however, that we sympathize with the attitude of certain people who, when they have learned with what ease soul-flights are accomplished, go about bemoaning the fact that they are now imprisoned. They are constantly thinking of, and longing for, the day

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

when they

shall be able 'to leave this mortal behind and fly-away in their spiritual body. Such an attitude of mind is decidedly mistaken, the great and wise beings who are invisible leaders of our evolution have not placed us here to no purpose. Valuable lessons are to be learned in this visible world wherein we dwell, that cannot be learned in any other realm of nature, and the very conditions of density and inertia whereof such people complain, are factors which make it possible to acquire the knowledge this world is designed to give. This fact was so amply illustrated in a recent experience of the writer: friend had been studying occultism for a number of years but had not studcoil

ied astrology.

Last year she became aroused to the importance of this branch of study as a key to self knowledge and a means of understanding the natures of others, also of developing the compassion for their errors, so necessary in the cultivation of love of one's neighbor. Love of our neighbor the Savior enjoined

as the Supreme Commandment the fulfillment of all laws, and as Astrology teaches us to bear and forbear, it helps as nothing else can, in the development

upon

which

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WORLD

of the supreme virtue. She therefore joined one of the classes started in Los Angeles by the writer, but a sudden illness quickly ended in death and thus terminated her study of the subject in the physical body, ere well began.

Upon one

many

occasions

when she

was vis-

subsequent to her release from the body, she deplored the fact that it seemed so difficult to make headway in her ited the writer

study of astrology. The writer advised continued attendance at the classes, and suggested that she could surely get someone on the other side' to help her study. '

this she exclaimed impatiently: "Oh of I attend the "I course have yes! classes, done so right along; "I have also found a friend who helps me here. "But you cannot imagine how difficult it is to concentrate here upon mathematical calculations and the judgment of a horoscope or in fact upon any sub-

where every little thought-current takes you miles away from your study. "I used to think it difficult to concentrate when I had a physical body, but it is not a circumstance to the obstacles which face the student ject here,

here.

' '

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTEEIES

The physical body was an anchor

to her, that to all of us. Being dense, it Is also to a great extent impervious to disturbing influences from which the more subtle spiritual bodies do not shield us. It enables us to bring our ideas to a logical conclusion with far less effort at concentration than is necessary in that realm where all is in such incessant and turbulent motion. Thus we are gradually developing the faculty of holding our thoughts to a center by existence in this

and

it is

world, and we should value our opportunities here, rather than deplore the limitations which help in one direction more than they fetter in another. In fact, we should never deplore any condition, each has its lesson. If we try to learn what that lesson is and to assimilate the experience which may be extracted therefrom, we are wiser than those who waste time in vain regrets.

said there is no time in the Desire World, and the reader will readily understand that such must be the case from the fact, already mentioned, that nothing there is

opaque. In this world the rotation of the opaque

earth upon its axis is responsible for the ternating conditions of day and night.

al-

THE call it

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

Day when

the spot where

WOELD we

live is

turned towards the sun and its rays illumine our environment, but when our home is turned away from the sun and its rays obstructed by the opaque earth we term the resulting darkness Night. The passage of the earth in its orbit around the sun produces the seasons and the year, which are our diBut in the Desire World visions of time. where all is light there is but one long day. The spirit is not there fettered by a heavy physical body, so it does not need sleep and existence is unbroken. Spiritual substances are not subject to contraction and expansion such as arise here from heat and cold, hence summer and winter are also non-existent. Thus there is nothing to differentiate one moment from another in respect of the con:

and darkness, summer and time for us. Therefore, mark which winter, while the so-called 'dead' may have a very

ditions of light

of time as regards the life they lived here in the body, they are usually unable to tell anything about the chronologi-

accurate

memory

which have happened it is a very common thing to find that they do not even know how many years have alapsed since

cal relation of events

them in the Desire World, and

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

they passed out from this plane of existence. Only students of the Stellar Science are able to calculate the passage of time after their demise. When the occult investigator wishes to study an event in the past history of man, he readily call up the picture from of nature, but if he desires to fix the time of the incident, he will be obliged to count backwards by the motion of the heavenly bodies. For that purpose he generally uses the measure provided by the sun's precession: Each year the sun crosses the earth's equator about the twenty-first of March. Then day and night are of even length, therefore this is called the Vernal equinox. But on account of a certain wabbling motion of the earth's axis, the sun does not cross over at the same place in the Zodiac, it reaches the equator a little too early, it precedes, year by

may most the

memory

it moves backwards a little. At the time of the birth of Christ, for instance, the Vernal Equinox was in about seven degrees of the Zodiacal sign Aries. During the two thousand years which intervene between that event and the present time, the sun has

year

moved backwards about twenty-seven degrees, so that it is now in about ten degrees

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD

of the sign Pisces. It moves around the circle of the Zodiac in about 26,868 The occult investigator may thereyears. fore count back the number of signs, or whole circles, which the sun has preceded between the present day and the time of the event he is investigating. Thus he has by the use of the heavenly time keepers a very approximately correct measure of time even though he is in the Desire World and that is another reason for studying the Stellar Sci-

whole

ence.

The World of Thought.

When we

have attained the spiritual devel-

opment necessary

consciously enter the leave the Desire

World of Thought and

World, which is the realm of light and color, we pass through a condition which the occult investigator calls The Great Silence. As previously stated, the higher Regions <rf

f&$ ?*3irt ^Tcrld exhibit the marked pe2

'! its

iifre, but

all is

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTEEIES

one eternal NOW. There seems to be neither pleasure nor pain and yet tEere is no absence of feeling but it all seems to center in the one idea: "I am"! The human Ego, stands face to face with itself as it were, and for the time being all else is shut out. This is the experience of anyone who passes that breach between the Desire World and the World of Thought, whether involuntarily, in the course of an ordinary cyclic pilgrimage of the soul, which we shall later elucidate when speaking of the post-mortem existence, or by an act of the will, as in the case of the trained occult investigator, all

have the same experi-

ence in transition.

There are two main divisions in the PhysiWorld: the Chemical Region and the Ether ic Region. The World of Thought also has two great subdivisions: The Region of concrete Thought and the Region of abstract cal

Thought.

As we cal

specialize the material of the Physiit a dense body, and as

World and shape

we form the World a desire

force-matter of the Desire

body, so also do we appropriate a certain amount of mindstuff from the Region of concrete Thought ; but we, as spir-

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WOELD 97

clothe ourselves in spirit-substance from the Eegion of abstract Thought and thereby its,

we become individual,

separate Egos**

The Region of Concrete Thought. The Region of concrete Thought is neither shadowy nor illusory. It is the acme of reality and this world which we mistakenly regard as the only

verity, that of Region. replica

but an evanescent

little reflection will show the reasonableness of this statement and prove our contention that all we see here is really crystallized thought. Our houses, our machinery, our chairs and tables, all that has been made by the hand of man is the embodiment of a thought. As the juices in the soft body of the snail gradually crystallize into the hard

and flinty shell which it carries upon its back and which hides it, so everything used in our civilization is a concretion of invisible, intangible mind-stuff. The thought of James Watt in time congealed into a steam engine Edison's and revolutionized the world.

thought was condensed into an electric generator which has turned night to day, and had it not been for the thought of Morse and Marconi, the telegraph would not have annihil-

THE BOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

ated distance as

does today.

earth-

quake may wreck a city and demolish the lighting plant and telegraph station, but the thoughts of Watt, Edison and Morse remain, and upon the basis of their indestructible ideas new machinery may be constructed and

Thus thoughts are resumed. more permanent than things. The sensitive ear of the musician detects a certain musical note in every city which is different from that of another city. He hears in each little brook a new melody, and to him the sound of wind in the treetops of different forests give a varying sound. In the Desire World we noted the existence of forms simioperations

lar to the shapes of things here, also that seemingly sound proceeds from form, but in

the Eegion of concrete Thought it is different, for while each form occupies and obscures a certain space here, form is nonexistent when viewed from the standpoint of the Eegion of concrete Thought. Where the form was, a transparent, vacuous space is observable. From that empty void comes a sound which is the 'keynote' that creates and maintains the form whence it appears to come, as the almost invisible core of a gasflame is the source of the light we perceive.

THE

VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE

WORLD

Sound from a vacuum cannot be heard in the Physical World, but the harmony which proceeds from the vacuous cavity of a celestial archetype is "the voice of the silence," and it becomes audible when all earthly sounds have ceased. Elijah heard it not while the storm was raging; nor was it in evidence during the turbulence of the earthquake, nor in the crackling and roaring fire, but when the destructive and inharmonious sounds of this world had melted into silence, "the still small voice" issued its commands to save Elijah's

life.

That 'keynote* is a direct manifestation of the Higher Self which uses it to impress and govern the Personality it has created. But alas, part of its life has been infused into the material side of its being, which has thus obtained a certain will of its own and only too often are the two sides of our nature at war.

At is

flesh;

comes a time when the spirit weary to strive with the recalcitrant when "the voice of the silence" ceases.

last there

too

matter how much earthly nourishment seek to give, will not avail to sustain a form when this harmonious sound, this

we may

"word from heaven" no longer reverberates through the empty void of the

celestial arche-

100

THE BOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

type, for "man lives not by bread alone," but by the WORD, and the last sound-vibration of the 'keynote' is the death-knell of the physical body.

In this world we are compelled to investigate and to study a thing before we know about it, and although the facilities for gaining information are in some respects much greater in the Desire World, a certain

amount of investigation is necessary nevertheless to acquire knowledge. In the World of Thought, on the contrary, it is different.

When we

wish to know about any certain thing there, and we turn our attention thereto, then that thing speaks to us, as it were. The sound it emits at once gi^es us a most luminous comprehension of every phase of its nature. We attain to a realization of its past history; the whole story of its unfoldment is laid bare and we seem to have lived through all of those experiences together with the thing we are investigating.

Were it not for one enormous difficulty, the story thus obtained would be exceedingly valuable: But all this information, this lifepicture, flows in upon us with an enormous rapidity in a moment, in the twinkling of an

eye, so that

has neither beginning nor end,

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WORLD

101

World of Thought, all is one great NOW, Time does not exist. Therefore, when we want to use the archetypal information in the Physical World, we must disentangle and arrange it in chronological order with beginning and ending be fore it becomes intelligible to beings living in a realm where Time is a prime factor. That rearrangement is a most difficult task as all words are coined with relation to the three dimensions of space and the evanescent unit of time, the fleeting moment, hence much of that information remains unavailable. for, as said, in the

Among the

denizens of this Region of conThought we may note particularly two classes. One is called the powers of darkness by Paul and the mystic investigator of the Western World knows them as Lords of Mind. They were human at the time when the earth was in a condition of darkness such as worlds in the making go through before they become luminous and reach the firemiststage. At that time we were in our mineral evolution. That is to say: The Human Spirit which has now awakened was encrusted in the ball of mindstuff, which was then the crete

At that time the present Human Spirwere as much asleep as is the life which

earth. its

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTEKIES

102

ensouls our minerals of today, and as we are working with the mineral chemical constituents of the earth, molding them into houses, railways, steam-boats, chairs, etc., etc., so those beings, who are now Lords of Mind,

worked with us when we were mineral-like. They have since advanced three steps, through stages similar to that of the Angels and Archangels, before they attained their present position and became creative intelligences. They are expert builders of mind

are builders of the present minand therefore they have given us necessary help to acquire a mind which is the highest development of the human being. stuff,

eral substances

According to the foregoing explanation it seems to be an anomaly when Paul speaks of them as evil and exhorts us to withstand The difficulty disappears, however, them. when we understand that good and evil are but relative quantities. An illustration will the point clear: Let us suppose that an expert organ builder has constructed a wonderful organ, a masterpiece. Then he has followed his vocation in the proper manner, and is therefore to be commended for the good which he has done. But if he is not satisfied to leave well enough alone, if he refuses

make

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WOKLD

103

up his product to the musician who understands how to play upon the instrument; if he intrudes his presence into the concert hall, he is out of place and to be censured as evil. Similarly the Lords of Mind to give

did the greatest possible service to humanity to acquire our mind, but

when they helped us

many

subtle thought influences come from to be resisted, as Paul very

them, and are

properly emphasizes.

The other class of beings which must be mentioned are called Archetypal Forces by the Western School of occultism. They direct the energies of the creative Archetypes native to this realm. They are a composite class of beings of many different grades of intelligences, and there is one stage in the cyclic journey of the Human Spirit when that also labors in, and is part of, that great host of

beings. tined to

For the Human

Spirit

also des-

become a great creative intelligence at some future time, and if there were no school wherein it could gradually learn to create, it would not be able to advance, for nothing in nature is done .suddenly. An acorn planted in the soil does not become a majestic oak over night, but many years of slow, persistent growth are required be-

THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTEBIES

104 fore

attains to the stature of a giant of the

A man does not become an Angel by mere fact of dying and entering a new world any more than an animal advances to be a man by the same process. But in time all that lives, mounts the ladder of Being from the clod to the God. There is no limitation possible to the spirit, and so at various forest.

the

its unfoldment the works with the other nature

stages in

Human Spirit forces, accord-

ing to the stage of intelligence which it has attained. It creates, changes and remodels the earth upon which it is to live. Thus, under the great law of cause and effect, which we observe in every realm of nature, it reaps upon earth what it has sown in heaven, and vice versa. It grows slowly but persistently and advances continually.

The Region of Abstract Thought. Various religious systems have been given to humanity at different times, each suited to meet the spiritual needs of the people among

whom the

it was promulgated, and, coming from same divine source: God, all religions

exhibit similar fundamentals or first principles.

All systems teach that there

was a time

when darkness reigned supreme. "Everything

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WORLD

105

which we now perceive was then non-existent. Earth, sky and the heavenly bodies were uncreate, so were the multitudinous forms which live and move upon the various planets. All, all, was yet in a fluidic condition and the Universal Spirit brooded quiescent in limitless Space as the One Existence.

The Greeks

homoand the state of orderly segregeneity Chaos, gation which we now see the marching orbs which illumine the vaulted canopy of heaven, the stately procession of planets around a central light, the majestic sun the unbroken sequence of the seasons and the unvarying alternation of tidal ebb and flow; all this aggregate of systematic order, was called Cosmos, and was supposed to have proceeded from Chaos. The Christian Mystic obtains a deeper comprehension when he opens his Bible and poncalled that condition of

;

ders the first five verses of that brightest gem of all spiritual lore: the Gospel of St. John. As he reverently opens his aspiring heart to acquire understanding of those sublime mystical teachings he transcends fhe formside of nature, comprising various realms of which we have been speaking, and finds him-

THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTEEIES

106

"in the spirit," as did the prophets in olden times. He is then in the Region of abself

stract Thought and sees the eternal verities which also Paul beheld in this, the third,

heaven.

For those among us who are unable to obtain knowledge save by reasoning upon the matter, however, it will be necessary to examine the fundamental meaning of words

used by

St.

John to clothe his wonderful was originally given in the

teaching, which

Greek language, a much simpler matter than commonly supposed, for Greek words have

been freely introduced into our modern languages, particularly in scientific terms, and shall show how this ancient teaching is supported by the latest discoveries of modern science.

The opening verse of the gospel of St. John "In the beginning was the as follows: and was with God, and the the Word Word, Word was God." We will examine the words: 'beginning,' 'Word' and 'God.' We is

Greek version the and God was the concluding sentence reads Word," a difference which makes a great

may

also note that in the

' '

distinction.

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WORLD 107

an axiomatic truth that out of nothing, nothing comes," and it has often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches It is

' '

generation "from nothing.** We readily agree that translations into the modern languages promulgate this erroneous doctrine, but we have shown in The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception (chapter on "the Occult Analysis of Genesis), that the Hebrew text speaks of an ever-existing essence, as the basis whence all forms, the earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created, and John also gives the same teaching. The Greek word arche, in the opening sentence of the gospel of St. John has been

translated the beginning, and it may be said to have that meaning, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more significant

John wished to convey. It means an elementary condition, a chief source,

of the idea

first principle,

primordial matter.

There was a time when science insisted that the elements were immutable, that is to say, that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron since the earth was formed and would so remain to the end of time. The Alchemists were sneered at as fanciful dreamers or madmen, but since Professor J. J. Thomson's dis-

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

108

covery of the electron, the atomic theory of matter, is no longer tenable. The principle of radio-activity has later vindicated the AlScience and the Bible agree in teaching, that all that is, has been formed from one homogeneous substance. chemists.

which John called primordial matter, and the dictiondefines ary Archeology as: "the science of It is that basic principle

arcTie

the origin (arche) of things. Masons style God the "Grand Architect," for the Greek word; tektos means builder, and God is the Chief Builder (tektos), of arche: the primordial virgin matter which is also the chief source of all things.

Thus we

see that

when

the opening sentence of St. John's gospel is properly translated, our Christian Eeligion teaches that once a virgin substance enfolded the divine

Thinker:

That

God. the identical condition which the

earlier Greeks called Chaos.

make

A little thought

evident that we are not arbitrary in finding fault with the translation of the gospel, for it is self-evident that a word cannot be the beginning, a thought must precede the word, and a thinker must originate thought before it can be expressed as a word. will

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WORLD

109

When

properly translated the teaching of John fully embodies that idea, for the Greek term logos means both the reasonable thought,

(we

also

say

Logic),

and the

word which expresses

this (logical) thought. In the 1) primordial substance was thought, and the thought was with God

And God was

the word,

2) THAT, [The Word}, also the primal state.

Later the divine

WORD

was with God

the Creative Fiat, reverberates through space and segegrates the homogeneous virgin substance into separate forms. ;

3) Every thing has come into existence because of that prime fact, [The Word of

God], and no thing exists apart from that fact.

4) In that was Life. Tn the alphabet we have a few elementary sounds from which words may be constructed.

They are

basic elements of expression,

as bricks, iron and lumber are raw materials of architecture, or as a few notes are compo-

nent parts of music. But a heap of bricks, iron and lumber, is not a house, neither is a jumbled mass of notes music, nor can we call a haphazard r rangement of alphabetical sounds: a word.

110

THE

EOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

These raw materials are prime necessities in construction of architecture, music, literature or poetry, but the contour of the finished product and the purpose it will serve depends upon the arrangement of the raw materials, which is subject to the constructor's design. Building materials may be formed to prison or palace notes may be arranged as fanfare or funeral dirge words may be indited to inspire passion or peace, all according to the will of the designer. So also the majestic rhythm of the Word of God has wrought the primal substance arche, into the multitudinous forms which comprise the phenomenal :

;

world, according to His will. Did the reader ever stop, to consider the wonderful power of a human word. Coming to us in the sweet accents of love, it may lure us from paths of rectitude to shameful ignominy and wreck our life with sorrow and remorse, or it may spur us on in noblest efforts to acquire glory and honor, here or hereafter. According to the inflection of the voice a word may strike terror into the bravest heart or lull a timid child to peaceful slumber. The word of an agitator may rouse the passions of a mob and impel it to awful bloodshed, as in the French Revolution, where dictatorial

THE VISIBLE AND THE mandates of mob-rule

INVISIBLE killed

WORLD

111

and exiled

pleasure, or, the strain of "Home, Sweet Home" may cement the setting of a familycircle beyond possibility of rupture.

Right words are true and therefore free, they are never bound or fettered by time or space, they go to the farthest corners of the earth, and when the lips that spoke them first have long since mouldered in the grave, other voices take up with unwearying enthusiasm their

message of

the mystical

life

and

"Come

love, as for instance

unto

me"

which has

from unnumbered tongues and brought oceans of balm to troubled hearts. sounded

Words of Peace have been victorious, where war would have meant defeat, and no talent is

to be desired than ability to word at the auspicious

always say the right time.

Considering thus the immense power and potency of the human word, we may perhaps dimly apprehend the potential magnitude of the Word of God the Creative Fiat, when, as a mighty dynamic force it first reverberated ;

through space and commenced to form primordial matter into worlds, as sound from a violin bow moulds sand into geometrical figures. Moreover, the Word of God still sounds

THE ROSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

112

to sustain the

onwards

marching orbs and impel them

in their circle paths, the Creative

Word

continues to produce forms of gradually increasing efficiency, as media expressing life and consciousness. The harmonious enunciation of consecutive syllables in the

Divine Creative

Word mark successive stages When the

in evolution of the world and man. last syllable

has been spoken and the com-

plete word has sounded, we shall have reached perfection as human beings. Then Time will

be at an end, and with the last vibration of Word of God, the worlds will be resolved

the

into their original elements.

Our

life will

then be "hid with Christ in God," till the Cosmic Night Chaos, is over, and we wake to do "greater things" in a "new heaven and a new earth." :

According

to the general idea

Chaos and

Cosmos are superlative other.

antitheses of one anChaos being regarded as a past condi-

tion of confusion

and disorder which has long by cosmic or-

since been entirely superseded

now prevails. As a matter of fact, Chaos

der which

the seed-

ground of Cosmos, the basis of all progress, for thence come all IDEAS which later ma-

THE VISIBLE AND THE as

terialize

phones,

INVISIBLE

WOBLD

Steamboats,

Railways,

113

Tele-

etc.

We speak

of "thoughts as being conceived by the mind, but as both father and mother are necessary in the generation of a child, so ' '

must be both idea and mind before a thought can be conceived. As semen germinated in the positive male organ is projected also there

into the negative uterus at conception, so

ideas are generated by a positive Human Ego in the spirit-substance of the Region of abstract Thought. This idea is projected upon

the receptive mind, and a conception takes place. Then, as the spermatozoic nucleus draws upon the maternal body for material to shape a body appropriate to its individual expression, so does each idea clothe itself in a peculiar form of mindstuff. It is then a thought, as visible to the inner vision of composite man, as a child Thus we see that

to its parent.

ideas are embryonic nuclei of spirit-substance from the thoughts, abstract of Thought. Improperly Region conceived in a diseased mind they become vagaries and delusions, but

when gestated

in a

sound mind and formed into rational thoughts they are the basis of all material, moral and

THE

114

RosicEuciAisr MYSTERIES

mental progress, and the closer our touch with Chaos, the better will be our Cosmos, for in that realm of abstract realities truth is not obscured by matter, it is self-evident. Pilate was asked "what is Truth,'* but no answer is recorded. We are incapable of cognizing truth in the abstract while we live in the phenomenal world, for the inherent nature of matter is illusion and delusion, and we are constantly making allowances and corrections whether we are conscious of the fact or not. The sunbeam which proceeds for 90 millions of miles in a straight line, is refracted or bent, as soon as it strikes our dense atmosphere, and according to the angle of its refraction, it appears to have one color or another. The straightest stick appears crooked when partly immersed in water, and the

truths which are so self-evident in the Higher worlds are likewise obscured, refracted or twisted out of all semblance under the illusory conditions of this material world.

"The truth shall set you free," said Christ, and the more we turn our aspirations from material acquisitiveness and seek to lay up treasure above, the more we aim to rise, the oftener ily

we "get in the spirit," the more readknow truth" and reach libera-

"shall

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WOKLD

115

from the

fetter of flesh which binds us to a limited environment, and attain to a sphere of greater usefulness.

tion

Study of philosophy and science has a tendency to further perception of truth, and as science has progressed it has gradually receded from its erstwhile crude materialism. The day is not far off when it will be more

reverently religious than the church itself. Mathematics are said to be "dry;" for they do not stir the emotions. When it is taught that "the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees," the dictum is at once accepted, because its truth is self-evident and no feeling is involved in the matter. But when a doctrine such as the Immaculate Conception is promulgated and our emotions are stirred, bloody war, or heated argument, may result, and still leave the matter in doubt. Pythagoras demanded that his pupils study mathematics, because he knew the elevating effect of raising their minds above the sphere of feelsubject to delusion, and elevating it towards the Region of abstract Thought which is the prime reality. ing,

where

it is

In this place we are dealing with worlds in particular,

and

will therefore defer

comment

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

116

upon the remainder of the 5 John's gospel: "And Life became Light

first

verses of St.

man,

5) and Light shines in Darkness."

have now seen that the earth is composed of three worlds which interpenetrate one another so that it is perfectly true when Christ said that " heaven is within you" or, the translation should rather have been; among you. We have also seen that of these three realms two are subdivided. It has also been explained that each division serves a great purpose in the unfoldment of various forms of life which dwell in each of these worlds, and we may note in conclusion, that the lower regions of the Desire World constitute what the Catholic religion calls Purgatory, a place where the evil of a past life is transmuted to good, usable by the spirit as

conscience in later lives. The higher regions of the Desire World are the first Heaven where all the good a man has done, is assimilated by the spirit as soul power. The Eegion of concrete Thought is the second Heaven. where, as already said, the spirit prepares its future environment on earth, and the Eegion of abstract Thought is the third Heav-

THE VISIBLE AND THE en, but as

Paul

INVISIBLE

WORLD

117

said, it is scarcely lawful to

speak about that. Some will ask

there then no hell ! No as greatly towards of the principle of GOOD as "the inhumanity of man" towards cruelty, so that he would consign his brother men to flames of hell during eternity for the puerile mistakes committed during a few years, or perhaps for a The writer has slight difference in belief. heard of a minister who wished to impress " flock" with the his reality of an eternity of hell flames, and to demonstrate the fallacy of a heretical notion entertained by some of his parisioners: that when sinners came to hell they burn to ashes and that is the end. :

The mercy

God tends

took with him an alcohol lamp and into the pulpit and told his audience that God would turn their souls He into a substance resembling asbestos. showed them that though the asbestos were heated red hot it did not decompose into ashes. Fortunately the day of the hell preacher has gone by, and if we believe the Bible which says that "in God we live and move and have our being," we can readily understand that a lost soul would be an impossibility, for were one single soul lost, then

some asbestos

THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

118

God Himself would be matter what our color, our race or

logically a part of lost.

our creed, we are all equally the children of in our various ways we shall obtain Let us therefore rather look satisfaction.

God and

to Christ

and forget Creed. Creed or Christ?

No man

Who

loves God who hates his kind tramples on his Brother's heart and ;

soul.

Who

seeks to shackle cloud or fog the mind By fears of Hell has nor perceived our ;

;

goal.

God-sent are

all religions blest;

And

Christ; the Way, the Truth and Life, To give the heavy-laden rest, And peace for Sorrow, Sin and Strife.

At his request the Universal Spirit came To all the churches; not to one alone, On Pentecostal morn a tongue of flame; Bound each apostle as a halo shone.

;

Since then, as vultures ravenous with greed; We oft have battled for an empty name,

And sought by Dogma, Edict, Creed, To send each other to the flame.

THE VISIBLE AND THE

INVISIBLE

WORLD 119

Was Cephas or Paul Nailed to the cross to die? then why these divisions at all ? If not Christ's love doth embrace you and L

Is Christ then divided?

His pure sweet love is not confined By creeds which segregate and raise a wall

His love enfolds, embraces Humankind No matter what ourselves or Him we

Then wny not take Him

call.

His word?

Why hold to creeds which tear apart? But one thing matters, be it heard, That brother-love fill every heart. There

is but one thing that the world has need to know There is but one balm for all our human woe There is but one way that leads to heaven above That way is human sympathy and love. ;

;

CHAPTER IV. (Eottaittulum

Our chapter head, "the constitution man," may surprise a reader who has not previously studied the Mysof

tery teachings, or he may imagine that intend to give an anatomical dissertation, have spobut such is not our intention. ken of the earth upon which we live as being composed of several invisible realms in addition to the world we perceive by means of have also spoken of man as our senses. being correlated to these various divisions in nature, and a little thought upon the subject will quickly convince us that in order to function upon the various planes of existence described, it is necessary that a man should have a body composed of their substance, or at least have specialized for his own use, some of the material of each of these worlds. have said that finer matter, called de-

sire stuff

and mind

stuff,

120

permeates our

at-

THE CONSTITUTION mosphere and the

MAN

121

solid earth, even as hlood

percolates through all parts of our flesh. But that is not a sufficient explanation to account for all facts of life. If that were all,

then minerals, which are interpenetrated by the world of thought and the world of desire, would have thoughts and desires as well as man. This is not the case, so something more than mere interpenetration must be requisite to acquire the faculties of thought

and

feeling.

know

that in order to function in this among oth-

world, to live as a physical being er, like, beings, all

we must have a

physical body

our own; built of the chemcial constitu-

ents of this visible world. When we lose it at death, it profits us nothing that the world is full of just the very chemicals needed to build such a body. cannot then special-

and therefore we are

invisible to did not Similarly, possess a special body made of ether, we should be unable to grow and to propagate. That is the case with the mineral. Had we no separate individual desire body, we should be unable to feel desires and emotions, there would be no incentive to move from one should then be stationplace to another.

ize them,

all others.

122

THE

KosicRuciAisr MYSTERIES

ary as plants, and did we not possess a mind, we should be incapable of thought, and act upon impulse and instinct as animals. Some one may of course object to this last statement, and contend that animals do think. So far as our domesticated animals are concerned that is partially true, but it is

not quite in the same

and reason.

The

way

that

difference

may

think

perhaps

best be understood if we take an illustration from the electrical field. When an electric current of high voltage is passed through a coiled copper wire, and another wire is placed in the center of the coils, that wire will

become charged with

electricity of a lower the when brought also so animal, voltage within the sphere of human thoughts, evolves a mental activity of a lower order. Paul, in his writings, also mentions the

natural body and the spiritual body while the man himself is a spirit inhabiting those vehiwill briefly note the constitution cles. of the various bodies of man invisible to the physical sight but as objective to spiritual sight as the dense body to ordinary vision.

The Vital Body. That body of ours which is composed of ether is called the "vital body" in Western

THE CONSTITUTION

MAN

123

for, as we have already avenue of ingress for vital force from the sun and the field of agencies in nature which promote such vital activities as assimilation, growth and propagation. This vehicle is an exact counterpart of our

Mystery Schools, seen, ether is the

and organ for organ, with one exception, which we shall note later. But it is slightly larger, extending about one and one-half inches beyond visible body, molecule for molecule,

the periphery of our dense vehicle. The spleen is the entrance gate of forces which vitalize the body. In the etheric countepart of that organ solar energy is transmuted to vital fluid of a pale rose color. From thence it spreads all over the nervous system, and after having been used in the body it radiates in streams, much as bristles

protrude from a porcupine. The rays of the sun are transmitted either directly, or reflected by way of the planets and the moon. The rays directly from the sun give spiritual illumination, the rays received by way of the planets produce intelligence, morality, and soul growth, but the rays reflected by way of the moon make for physical growth, as seen in the case of plants which grow differently when planted in the

124

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

moon from what is the case when are planted when the moon is dark. they There is also a difference in plants sown when the moon is in barren and fruitful signs of the Zodiac. light of the

solar ray is absorbed by the human which has its seat in the center of the spirit the stellar ray is absorbed by the forehead, brain and spinal cord, and the lunar ray enters our system through the spleen. Both solar, stellar and lunar rays are three-colored, and in the lunar ray which

The

supplies our vital force, the blue beam is the of The Father, which causes germination, the yellow beam is the life of The Son, which is the active principle in nutrition and growth, and the red beam is the life of the Holy Spirit, which stimulates to action, dissipating the energy stored by the yellow force. This principle is particularly active in genlife

eration.

The various kingdoms

absorb

this

life-

force differently, according to their constitution. Animals have only 28 pairs of spinal nerves. They are keyed to the lunar month of 28 days and therefore dependent upon a Groupspirit for an infusion of stellar rays necessary to produce consciousness. They

THE CONSTITUTION

OF MAJST

125

are altogether incapable of absorbing the direct ray of the sun.

Man is in a transition stage, he has 31 pairs of spinal nerves which keys him to the solar month, but the nerves in the so-called caudaequina literally: horse-tail , at the end of our spinal cord, are still too undeveloped to act as avenues for the spiritual ray of the sun. In proportion as we draw our creative force upward by spiritual thought we develop these nerves and awaken dormant faculties of the spirit. But it is dangerous to attempt that development except under guidance of a qualified teacher, and the reader is earnestly warned not to use any method published in books, or sold, for their practice usually leads to dementia. The safe method is never sold for money or any earthly consideration however large or small; it is always freely given as a reward of merit. "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened", said the Christ. If our life is a prayer for illumination, the search will not be uncertain, nor the knock without response.

When

solar energy has been transmuted

in the spleen it traverses the whole nervous system of the body glowing with a most

126

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

beautiful color of a delicate rosy hue. It answers the same purpose as electricity in a

may string wires beerect cities, telegraph stations, install receivers and transmitters. may even telegraph system.

tween

have operators ready at the keys, but until electric fluid is turned into our wires, the telegraph keys will refuse to click. So also in the body, the human spirit is operator, and from the central station of the brain, nerves ramify, go through the wKole body to all the different muscles.

of which

When

this vitalizing fluid

are speaking traverses the nervous system, the Ego may send his commands to the muscles and cause them to move but if the vital fluid for any reason does not flow into a certain part of the body such as an arm or a limb, then the spirit is powerless to move that part of the body and we say that it is

paralyzed. are in health, we specialize solar energy in such great quantities that we cannot use it all in the body and therefore it radiates through the pores of our skin in straight streams and serves a similar purpose as an exhaust fan. That machine drives the foul air out of a room or building and keeps the atmosphere within pure and sweet.

When we

THE CONSTITUTION

MAN

127

The excessive vital force which radiates from the body drives out poisonous gases, deleterious microbes and effete matter thus tending to preserve a healthy condition. It also prevents armies of disease germs, which swarm about in the atmosphere, from entering; upon the same principle that a fly cannot wing its way into a building through the exhaust fan. Thus it serves a most beneficent purpose even after it has been utilized in our body and is returning to the free state. and most astounding sight observes how, from exposed parts of the body such as hands and face, there suddenly commences to flow a stream of stars, cubes, pyramids and a variety of other geometrical forms. The writer has more than once rubbed his eyes when he first perceived the phenomenon, for it seemed that It is a curious,

when one

first

he must be suffering from hallucinations. The forms observed are chemical atoms however, which have served their purpose in the body and are expelled through the pores. When one has eaten a meal, vital fluid is consumed by the body in great quantities, for it is the cement whereby nature's forces build our food into the body. Therefore the radiations are weakest during the period of

128

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

meal has been heavy, the very perceptibly diminished, and does not then cleanse our body as thoroughly as when the food has been digested, nor are digestion.

outflow

If the

they as potent in keeping out inimical germs. Therefore one is most liable to catch cold or other disease by overeating, a fault which should be avoided by all who wish to keep in

good health. During ill health the

vital body specializes but little solar energy. Then, for a time, the visible body seems to feed upon the vital

body as it were, so that the vehicle becomes more transparent and attenuated at the same rate as the visible body exhibits a state of emaciation. The cleansing odic radiations are almost entirely absent during sickness, therefore complications set in so easily.

Though this vital

science has not directly observed body of man, it has upon several

occasions postulated the existence of such a vehicle as necessary to account for facts in life and the radiations have been observed by a number of scientists at different times

and under varying conditions. Blondlot and Charpentier have called them N-rays after the city of Nantes where the radiations were observed by these scientists, others have

THE CONSTITUTION

MAN

named them "The Odic fluid". investigators who have conducted

129

Scientific

researches

phenomena have even photoit when it has been extracted graphed the through spleen by materializing spirits. Dr. Hotz for instance obtained two photointo psychic

graphs of a materialization, through the German medium, Minna-Demmler. On one a cloud of ether is seen oozing out through the left side of the medium, shapeless and without form. The second picture, taken a few moments later, shows the materialized spirit standing at the medium 's side. Other photographs obtained by scientists from the Italian medium, Eusapio Palladino show a luminous cloud over-hanging her left side.

said in the beginning of this descripbody is an exact counterof the dense part body with one exception it is of the opposite sex or perhaps we should rather say polarity. As the vital body nourishes the dense vehicle, we may readilv understand that blood is its highest visible expression, and also that a positively polarized tion that the vital

body would generate more blood than a negative one. Woman who is physically negative has a positive vital body, hence she generates a surplus of blood which is relieved by vital

130

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

the periodical flow. She is also more prone to tears, which are white bleeding, than man,

whose negative

vital

body does not generate

more blood than he can comfortably take care Therefore it is not necessary for him to of. have the outlets which relieve excess of blood in

woman.

The Desire Body. In addition to the visible body and the body we also have a body made of desire stuff from which we form our feelings and emotions. This vehicle also impels us to seek sense gratification. But while the two instruments of which we have already spok-

vital

en, are well organized, the desire body appears to spiritual sight as an ovoid cloud extending from sixteen to twenty inches beyond the physical body. It is above the head and below the feet so that our dense sits in the center of this egg-shaped cloud as the yolk is in the center of an egg. The reason for the rudimentary state of this vehicle is, that it has been added to the human constitution more recently than the bodies previously mentioned. Evolution of form may be likened to the manner in which

body

THE CONSTITUTION the juices in the snail

first

MAN

131

condense into flesh

become a hard shell. When our visible present body first germinated in the spirit; it was a thought-form, but gradually it has become denser and more concrete until and

later

now a chemical crystallization. The body was next emanated by the spirit as a thought-form and is in the third stage of concretion which is etrerie. The desire body is a still later acquisition. That also was a form at its thought inception, but has now condensed to desire stuff, and the mind, whish we have only recently received, is still but a mere cloudy thought form. Arms and limbs, ears and eyes are not it

vital

necessary to use the desire body, for it can glide through space more swiftly than wind without such means of locomotion as we require in this visible world.

When

viewed by spiritual

sight, it

appears

that there are in this desire body a numhave already ber of whirling vortices. of desire that it a characteristic is explained stuff to be in constant motion, and from the main vortex in the region of the liver, there is a constant outwelling flow which radiates towards the periphery of this egg-shaped body and returns to the center through a

132

THE ROSICKUCIAN MYSTERIES

number of other

vortices. The desire body exhibits all the colors and shades which we

know and a vast number indescribable

of others which are

earthly

language.

Those

colors vary in every person according to his characteristics and temperament and they

from moment

to moment as passor fancies are experiemotions g moods, enced by him. There is however in each also vary

one a certain basic color dependent upon the ruling star at the moment of his birth. The man in whose horoscope, Mars is peculiarly strong usually h;is a crimson tint in his aura, where Jupiter is the strongest planet the prevailing tint seems to be a bluish tone, and so on with the other planets.

There was a time in the earth's past tory

when

incrustation

his-

was not yet complete,

and human beings of that time lived upon islands here and there, amid boiling seas. They had not yet evolved eyes or ears, but a little organ the pineal gland, which anatomists have called the third eye, protruded through the back of the head and was a localized organ of feeling, which warned the man when he came too near a volcanic crater and :

thus enabled him to escape destruction. Since then the cerebral hemispheres have covered

THE CONSTITUTION

MAN

133

the pineal gland, and instead of a single organ of feeling, the whole body inside and out is sensitive to impacts, which of course is

a much higher state of development. In the desire body every particle is sensitive to vibrations similar to those which we call sight, sounds and feelings and every particle is in incessant motion rapidly swirling about so that in the same instant it may be at the top and bottom of the desire body and impart at all points to all the other particles a sensation of that which it has experienced thus every particle of desire stuff in this vehicle of ours will instantly feel any sensation

experienced by any single particle. Therefore the desire body is of an exceeding-

ly sensitive nature, capable of

feelings

most intense

and emotions.

The Mind. This

the latest acquisition of the

human

and in most people who have not yet accustomed themselves to orderly, consecutive thought, it is a mere inchoate cloud disspirit,

posed particularly in the region of the head. When looking at a person clairvoyantly there appears to be an empty space in the center of the forehead just above and between the

THE BOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

134

eyebrows. flame.

man

It looks like the blue part of a gas is mind stuff which veils the hu-

That

or Ego, and the writer has been most gifted seer can veil which that is said to have been penetrate in of ancient Egypt as "the veil of spoken none which Isis" may lift and live, for behind that veil is the Holy of Holies, the temple of our body, where the spirit is to be left secure from all intrusion. spirit,

told that not even the

To those who have not previously studied the deeper philosophies the question may occur: But why all these divisions; even the Bible speaks only of soul and body, for most people believe soul and spirit to be synonycan only answer that this mous terms. division is not arbitrary but necessary, and founded upon facts in nature. Neither is it correct to regard the soul and the spirit as sysnonymous. Paul himself speaks of the natural body which is composed of physical substances: solids, liquids, gases and ethers; he mentions a spiritual body, which is the vehicle of the spirt composed of the mind and

desire body, and the spirit itself, which is called Ego in Greek or "I" in English.

That term "I" is an appelation which can only be made by the human spirit of itself.

THE CONSTITUTION

MAN

135

We may

all call a dog, dog; or we may call a table, table, and any one else may apply

the same name to the dog and to the table, but only a human being can be called "I" and only he, himself can apply that most exclusive of all words "I" for this is the badge of self-consciousness, the recognition by the :

human

spirit of itself as an entity, separate and apart from all others. Thus we see that the constitution of man is more complex than appears upon the surface, and we will now proceed to note the effect upon this multiplex being of various

conditions of

life.

CHAPTER

ICtfe

Invisible Helpers

and Mediums.

There are two classes of people in the world. In one class the vital and dense bodies are so firmly cemented that the ethers cannot be extracted under any circumstances but remains with the dense body at all times and under all conditions from birth to death. Those people are insensible to any supersensuous sights or sounds. They are therefore usually exceedingly sceptic, and believe nothing exists but what they can see. There is another class of people in whom the connection between the dense and the vital bodies is more or iess loose, so that the ether of their vital bodies vibrates at a higher rate than in the first class mentioned. These people are therefore more or less sensitive to the spiritual world. This class of sensitives may again be divided. Some are weak characters, dominat136

LIFE AND DEATH

137

ed by the will of others in a negative manner, as mediums, who are the prey of disembodied spirits desirous of obtaining a physical body when they have lost their own by death.

The other

class of sensitives are strong positive characters, who act only from withThey may in, according to their own will.

trained clairvoyants, and be instead of slaves of a disembodied spirit. In some sensitives of both classes it is possible to extract part of the ether which forms the vital body. When a disembodied spirit obtains a subject of that nature, it develops the sensitive as a mate-

develop

their

into

own masters

rializing

medium.

The man who

capable

of extracting his own vital body by an act of will, becomes a citizen of two worlds, independent and free. These are usually known as Invisible Helpers. There are certain other abnormal conditions where the vital body and the dense body are separated totally or in part, for instance if we place our limb in an uncomfortable position so that circulation of the blood ceases. Then we may see the etheric limb hanging down below the visible limb as a stocking. When we restore circulation and the etheric limb seeks to enter into place, an intense prickly sensation is felt, due to the

138

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

fact that the little streams of force, which radiate all through the ether, seek to per-

meate the molecules of the limb and stir them When a person is into renewed vibration. vital the also body drowning, separates from vehicle and the dense the intense prickly pain incident to resuscitation is also due to the cause mentioned.

While we are awake and going about our work in the Physical World, the desire body and mind, both permeate the dense and the vital bodies, and there is a constant war between the desire nature and the vital body. The vital body is continually engaged in building up tKe human organism, while the impulses of the desire body tend to tire and to break

down

tissue. Gradually, in the course of the vital body loses ground before the the day, onslaughts of the desire body, poisons of decay slowly accumulate and the flow of vital fluid

becomes more and more sluggish, until it is incapable of moving the musThe body then feels heavy and drowsy.

at length cles.

last the vital body collapses, as it were, the little streams of force which permeate each atom seem to shrivel up, and the Ego is forced to abandon its body to the restorative powers of sleep.

LIFE AND DEATH

When and

is to

139

a building had become dilapidated be restored and put in thorough re-

must move out to let the field. So also when the building of a spirit has become unfit for further use, it must withdraw therefrom. As the desire body caused the damage, it is a logical conclusion, that that also must be removed. Every night when our body has become tired, the higher vehicles are withdrawn, only the dense and vital bodies are left upon the bed. Then the process of restoration commences and lasts for a longer or a shorter time acpair, the tenants

workmen have a

free

cording to circumstances. At times however, the grip of the desire body upon our denser vehicles is so strong that it refuses to let go. When it has become so interested in the proceedings of the day, it continues to ruminate over them after the collapse of the physical body, and is perhaps only half extracted from that vehicle. Then it may transmit sights and sounds of the desire world to the brain. But, as the connections are necessarily askew under such conditions, the most confused dreams result. Furthermore, as the desire body compels motion, the

body

very apt to toss about, when

140

THE

RosicRuciAisr MYSTERIES

the desire body

not fully extracted, hence

the restless sleep which usually accompanies dreams of a confused nature.

There are times of course, when dreams are prophetic and come true, but such dreams result only after complete extraction of the desire body. Under circumstances where the spirit has seen some danger perhaps, which may befall, and then impresses the fact upon the brain at the moment of awakening. It also happens that the spirit goes upon a soul flight and omits to perform its part of the work of restoration, then the body will not be fit to re-enter in the morning, so it sleeps on. The spirit may thus roam afield for a number of days, or even weeks, before again enters its physical body and assumes the normal routine of alternating waking and This condition is called trance, and sleep. the spirit may remember upon its return what it has seen and heard in the super-physical realm, or it may have forgotten, according to the stage of its development and the depth of the trance condition. When the trance is very light, the spirit is usually present in the room where its body lies all the time, and upon its return to the body it will be able to recount to relatives all they it

LIFE AND DEATH

141

said and did while its body lay unconscious. Where the trance is deeper, the returning

what recount around its but happened body, may experiences from the invisible world. spirit will usually be unconscious of

few years ago a little girl by the name of Florence Bennett in Kankakee, Illinois, fell into such a trance. She returned to the

body every few days, but stayed within only a few hours each time, and the whole trance lasted three weeks, more or less. During the returns to her body she told relatives, that in her absence she seemed to be in a place inhabited by all the people who died. But

she stated that none of them spoke about dying and no one among them seemed to realize that they were dead. Among those she had seen was a locomotive engineer who had been accidentally killed. His body was in the accident which caused death.

mangled

The lithim there perceived walking about minus arms, and with lesions upon his head, tle girl

of which is in line with facts usually seen by mystic investigators. Persons who have been hurt in accidents go about thus, until they learn that a mere wish to have their all

body made whole,

will

supply a new arm or

142

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

limb; for desire stuff is most quickly and readily molded by thought.

Death.

After a longer or shorter time there comes in each life a point,

when

the experiences

spirit can gain from its present environment, have been exhausted, and life terminates in death.

which a

Death may be sudden and seemingly unexpected, as for instance by earthquake, upon the battle-field, or by accident, as we call it, but in reality, death is never accidental or

unforeseen by Higher Powers. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without divine Will.

There are along life's path, partings of the way, as it were, on one side the main line of life continues onward, the other path leads into what we might call a blind alley. If the man takes that path, it soon ends in death. "We are here in life for the sake of gaining experience and each life has a certain harvest to reap. If we order our life in such a manner that we gain the knowledge, it is intended we should acquire, we continue in life, and opportunities of different kinds constantly come our way. But if we neglect them, and the life goes into paths which are not oon-

LIFE AND DEATH

143

gruous to our individual development it would be a waste of time to let us stay in such, environment. Therefore the Great and Wise Beings, Who are behind the scene of evolution, terminate our life, thai we may have a fresh start in a different sphere of influence. The law of conservation of energy not confined to the Physical World, but operates in the spiritual realms also. There is nothing in life, that has not its purpose.

We do wrong to rail against circumstances, no matter how disagreeable, we should rather endeavor to learn the lessons which are contained therein, that we may live a long and useful life. Some one may object, and say: You are inconsistent in your teachings. You say there is really no death that we go into a brighter existence, and that we have to ;

learn other lessons there in a different sphere of usefulness ! Why then aim to live

a long

life

here?

very true that we make these claims, and they are perfectly consistent with the It is

other assertions just mentioned, but there are lessons to be learned here which cannot be learned in the other worlds, and we have to bring up this physical body through the useless years of childhood, through hot and

144

THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

impulsive youth, to the ripeness of manhood or womanhood, before it becomes of true

The longer we live after maturity has been attained when we have commenced to look upon the serious side of life and started to truly learn lessons which make for soulgrowth, the more experience we shall spiritual use.

;

gather and the richer our harvest will be. Then, in a later existence, we shall be so much more advanced, and capable of taking up tasks that would be impossible with less length of life and breadth of activity. Besides, it is hard to die for the man in the prime of life with a wife and growing f amily, whom he loves; with ambitions of greatness unfulfilled; with hosts of friends about him, and with interests all centered upon the material plane of existence. It is sad for the woman whose heart is bound up in home and the little ones she has reared, to leave them, perhaps without anyone to care for them to know that they have to fight their way alone through the early years when her tender care is needed, and perhaps to see those little ones abused, and she unable to lift a hand, though her heart may bleed as freely as it would in earth life. All these things are sad, and bind the they spirit to earth for a much long;

LIFE AND DEATH

145

er time than ordinarily, they hinder it reaping the experiences it should reap

from

upon

the other side of death, and they make it desirable along with other reasons already mentioned, to live a long life before passing

onwards.

The

difference between those

who pass

out

at a ripe old age, and one who leaves this earth in the prime of life, may be illustrated by the manner in which the seed clings to a

an unripe

state. great deal of necessary to tear the stone from a green peach; it has such a tenacious hold upon the fruit that shreds of pulp adhere to it when forcibly removed, so also the spirit clings to the flesh in middle life and a certain part of its material interest remain and bind it to earth after death. On the other hand, when a life has been lived to the full, when the spirit has had time to realize its ambitions or to find out their futility, when the duties of life have been performed and

fruit in

force

satisfaction rests

man

woman;

upon the brow of an aged when the life has been

misspent and the pangs of conscience have

worked upon the man, and shown him

his

mistakes when, in fact, the spirit has learned the lessons of life, as it must have to come ;

146

THE

ROSICRUCIAST MYSTERIES

to old age ; then it may be likened to the seed of the ripe fruit which falls out clean, with-

out a vestige of flesh clinging thereto, at the the encasing pulp is opened. Theresay, as before, that though there is a brighter existence in store for those who have lived well, it is nevertheless best to live a long life and to live it to the fullest extent

moment fore we

possible.

We also maintain, that no matter what may be the circumstances of a man's death, it is not accidental; it has either been brought about by his own neglect to embrace opportunities of growth, or else life has been lived to the ultimate possible. There is one exception to that rule, and that is due to man's exercise of his divine prerogative of interIf

lived according to schedule, if we all assimilated the experiences designed for our growth by the Creative Powers, ference.

we we

should live to the ultimate length, but ourselves usually shorten our lives by not taking advantage of opportunities, and it also happens that other men may shorten our lives and cut them off as suddenly as the socalled accident whereby the divine rulers terminate our life here. In other words, murder, or fatal accidents brought about by hu-

LIFE AND DEATH

147

man

carelessness, are in reality the only terlife not planned by invisible leaders of humanity. No one is ever compelled

mination to

to do murder or other evil, or there could not come to them a just retribution for their acts. The Christ said that evil must come but woe unto him by whom it cometh, and to har-

monize that with the law of divine justice: "as a man soweth, so shall he also reap," there must at least be absolute free will in respect to evil acts. There are also cases where a person lives such a full and good life of such vast benefit to humanity and to himself, that his days are lengthened beyond the ultimate, as they are shortened by neglect, but such cases are of

course too few to allow of their being dwelt

upon

at length.

Where death is not sudden as in the case of accidents, but occurs at home after an illness, quietly and peacefully, dying persons usually experience a falling upon them as of a pall of great darkness shortly before termination of life. Many pass out from the body under that condition, and do not see the light again until they have entered the superphysical realms. There are many other cases however, where the darkness lifts before the

148

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

final release

from the body.

Then the dying

person views both worlds at once, and is cognizant of the presence of both dead and living friends. Under such circumstances it very often happens that a mother sees some of her children who have gone before, and she will exclaim joyously: ''Oh, there is Johnny standing at the foot of my bed my but hasn't he grown! The living relatives may feel shocked and uneasy, thinking the mother suf;

fering from hallucinations, while in reality she is more clear-sighted than they, she perceives those who have passed beyond the veil,

who have come to greet and assist heir to find herself at home in the new world she is entering.

Each human being is an individual, separate and apart from all others, and as experiences in the life of each differ from those of all others in the interval from the cradle to the grave, so we may also reasonably infer that the experiences of each spirit vary from those of every other spirit, when it passes through the gates of birth and death.

print what purports to be a spirit message communicated by the late professor James of

Harvard at the Boston spirit temple, and in which he describes sensations which he felt

LIFE AND DEATH

when passing through

the gate of death.

149

do not vouch for its authenticity as we have not investigated the matter personally. Professor James had promised to communicate after death with his friends in this life, and the whole world of psychic research was and still is on watch for a word from him. Several mediums have claimed that Professor James has communicated through them, but the most remarkable are those 1

given through the Boston spirit temple as follows

"And awaken I

this is death, only to fall asleep, only to morning and to know that all is well.

in the

******** not dead, only arisen.

"I only know that I experienced a great shock through my entire system, as if some mighty bond had been rent asunder. For a moment I was dazed and lost consciousness. When I awakened I found myself standing beside the old body which had

served me faithfully and well. To say that I was surprised would only inadequately express the sensation that thrilled my very being, and I realized that some wonderful change had taken place. Suddenly I became conscious that my body was surrounded by many of my friends, and an uncontrollable desire took possession of me to speak and

touch them that they might know that I still lived. Drawing a little nearer to that which was so like

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

150

and yet unlike myself, I stretched forth my hand and touched them, but they heeded me not."

********

"Then

was

that the

full

significance of the

great change that had taken place flashed upon my newly awakened senses ; then it was that I realized

an impenetrable barrier separated me from my loved ones on earth, and that this great change which had taken place was indeed death. sense of weariness and longing for rest took possession of me. I seemed to be transported through space, and I lost consciousness, to awaken in a land so different and yet so similar to the one which I had It was not possible for me to describe lately left. my sensations when I again regained consciousness that

and realized

"When

though dead,

that,

was

still

alive.

my new enresting in a beautiful grove, and was realizing as never before what it was to be at peace with myself and all the world." I first

vironment

became conscious of

was

********

know

shall I

that only with the greatest difficulty be enabled to express to you my sensations

had awakened to a new no sound broke the silence. Darkness had surrounded me. In fact, I seemed to be enveloped in a heavy mist, beyond which my gaze could not penetrate. Soon in the distance I discerned a faint glimmer of light, which slowly approached me, and then, to my wonder and joy, I beheld the face of her who had been my guiding

when life.

I fully realized that I

All

was

still,

star in the early days of

earth life."

LIFE AND DEATH

One of the saddest seer at a death-bed

151

sights witnessed

by the

the tortures to which

often subject our dying friends on account of ignorance of how to care for them in that condition. have a science of birth; ob-

stetricians

who have been

trained for years

in their profession and have developed a wonderful skill, assist the little stranger into this world. We have also trained nurses attendant upon mother and child, the ingenuity of brilliant minds is focused upon the problem of how to make maternity easier, neither pains nor money are spared in these beneficent efforts for one whom we have never seen, but when the friend of a lifetime, the man who has served his kind well and nobly in pro-

fession, state, or church, is to leave the scene of his labors for a new field of activity when ;

woman who

has labored to no less good in purpose bringing up a family to take its in the world's work has to leave that part home and family, when one whom we have loved all our lives is about to bid us the final farewell, we stand by; utterly at a loss how to help perhaps we even do the very things most detrimental to the comfort and welfare the

;

of the departing one.

152

THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

Probably there

commonly

inflicted

no form of torture more

upon the dying, than that

which

is caused by administering stimulants. Such potions have the effect of drawing a departing spirit into its body with the force of a catapult, to remain and to suffer for some-

time longer. Investigators of conditions beyond have heard many complaints of such treatment. When it is seen that death must inevitably ensue, let not selfish desire to keep a departing spirit a little longer prompt us to inflict such tortures upon them. The death chamber should be a place of the utmost quiet, a place of peace and of prayer, for at that time, and for three and one-half days after the last breath, the spirit is passing through a Gethsemane and needs all the assistance that can be given. The value of the life that has just been passed depends greatly upon conditions which then prevail about the body; yes even the conditions of its future life are influenced by our attitude during that time, so that if ever we were our brother's keeper in life, we are a thousand times more so at death.

Post-mortem examinations, embalming and cremation during the period mentioned, not only disturbs the passing spirit mentally, but

LIFE AND DEATH is

153

even productive of a certain amount of

pain, for there is still a slight connection with the discarded vehicle. If sanitary laws re-

quire us to prevent decomposition while thus keeping the body for cremation, it may be packed in ice till the three and one-half days have passed. After that time the spirit will not suffer, no matter what happens to the

body.

The Panorama of a Past

matter

how

Life.

long we may keep

the spirit

from passing out however, at last there will come a time when no stimulant can hold it and the last breath is drawn. Then the silver cord, of which the Bible speaks, and which holds the higher and the lower vehicles together, snaps in the heart and causes that organ to stop. That rupture releases the vital body, and that, with the desire body and mind float above the visible body for, from one, to three and one-half days, while the spirit is engaged in reviewing the past life, an exceedingly important part of its post-

mortem

experience. Upon that review depends its whole existence from death to a

new birth. The question may arise in the mind How can we review our past :

student's life

from

THE EOSICEUCIAN MYSTEBIES

154

the cradle to the grave, when we do not even remember what we did a month ago, and to form a proper basis for our future life, this

record ought to be very accurate, but even the best memory is faulty? When we understand the difference between the conscious and sub-conscious memory and the manner in which the latter operates, the difficulty vanishes. This difference and the manner in which the sub-conscious memory keeps an accurate record of our life experiences may be best understood by an illustration, as follows When we go into a field and view the surrounding landscape, vibrations in the ether carries to us a picture of everything within the range of our vision. It is as sad as it is true however, that "we have eyes and see not," as the Savior said. These vibrations impinge upon the retina of our eyes, even to the very smallest details, but they usually do not penetrate to our consciousness, and therefore are not remembered. Even the most powerful impressions fade in course of time so that we cannot call them back at will, when they are stored in our conscious memory. :

When

a photographer goes afield with his the results which he obtains are dif-

LIFE AND DEATH

155

The ether vibrations emanating from things upon which his camera is focused,

f erent. all

transmit to the sensitive plate an impression of the landscape, true to the minutest detail and, mark this well, this true and accurate picture is in no wise dependent upon whether the photographer is observant or not. It will remain upon the plate and may be reproduc;

ed under proper conditions. Such is the subconscious memory, and it is generated automatically by each of us during every moment of time, independently of our volition in the following manner. From the first breath which we draw after birth to our last dying gasp, we inspire air which is charged with pictures of our surroundings, and the same ether which carries ;

that picture to the retina of our eye, is inhaled into our lungs where it oxygenates the blood. Thus it reaches the heart in due time. In the left ventricle of that organ, near the apex, there is one little atom which is particularly sensitized, and which remains in the

body

all

through

spect from

life.

It differs in this re-

other atoms which come and the particular property of God,

all

go, for it is and of a certain spirit. This atom may be called the book of the Recording Angel, for

THE

156

ROSICRTJCIAN MYSTERIES

as the blood passes through the heart, cycle after cycle, the pictures of our good and evil acts are inscribed thereon to the minutest detail. This record may be called the sub-con-

memory. It forms the basis of our future life when reproduced as a panorama just scious

subsequent to death. By removal of the seed which corresponds to the sensitized plate in a camera, the reflecting ether of the vital body serves as a focus, and as the life unrolls slowly, backwards from death to birth the pictures thereof are etched into the desire body which will be our vehicle during our

atom

sojourn in purgatory and the first heaven evil is eradicated and good assimilated, so that in a future life the former may serve as conscience to withhold the man from repeating mistakes of the past, and the latter will spur us to greater good.

where

A phenomenon life

similar to the panorama of takes usually place where a person is

drowning. People who have been resuscitated speak of having seen their whole life in a flash. That is because under such conditions the vital body also leaves the dense body. Of course there is no rupture of the silver cord, or life could not be restored. Unconsciousness follows quickly in drowning,

LIFE AND DEATH

157

while in the usual post-mortem review the consciousness continues until the vital body collapses in the same manner that it does when we go to sleep. Then consciousness ceases for a while and the panorama is terminated. Therefore also the time occupied by the panorama varies with different persons, according to whether the vital

body was

strong and healthy, or had become thin and emaciated by protracted illness. The longer the time spent in review, and the more quiet

and peaceful the surroundings, the deeper which is made in the desire body. As already said, that has a most important and far reaching effect, for then the sufferings which the spirit will realize in purgatory on account of bad habits and miswill be the etching

deeds will be much more keen, than if there only a slight impression, and in a future life the still small voice of conscience will warn so much more insistently against mistakes which caused sufferings in the past. is

When

conditions are such at the time of death that the spirit is disturbed by outside conditions, for instance the din and turmoil of a battle, the harrowing conditions of an accident or the hysterical wailings of relatives, the distraction prevents it from realiz-

158

THE BOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

ing an appropriate depth in the etching upon the desire body. Consequently its post-mortem existence becomes vague and insipid, the spirit does not harvest fruits of experience as it should have done, had it passed out of the body in peace and under normal conditions. It would therefore lack incentive to in a future life, and miss the warning good against evil which a deep etching of the pano-

rama

of life would have given. Thus its growth would be retarded in a very marked degree, but the beneficent powers in charge of evolution take certain steps to compensate for our ignorant treatment of the dying and other untoward circumstances mentioned.

What

these steps are, we shall discuss when considering the life of children in heaven, for the present let it be sufficient to say, that in

God's kingdom every evil is always transmuted to a greater good though the process may not be at once apparent. Purgatory.

During life the collapse of the vital body at night terminated our view of the world about us, and caused us to lose ourselves in unconsciousness of sleep.

When

the vital

LIFE AND DEATH

159

body collapses just subsequent to death, and the panorama of life is terminated, we also lose consciousness for a time which varies according to the individual. A darkness seems to fall upon the spirit, then after a while it wakes up and begins dimly to perceive the light of the other world, but is only gradually accustomed to the altered conditions. It is an

experience similar to that which we have when coming out of a darkened room into sunlight, which blinds us by its brilliancy, until the pupils of our eyes have contracted so that they admit a quantity of light bearable to our organism. If under such a condition

we turn momen-

tarily from the bright sunlight and look back into the darkened room, objects there will be

much more

plain to our vision than things outside which are illumined by the powerful rays of the sun. So it is also with the spirit, when it has first been released from the body it perceives sights, scenes and sounds of the

material world, which

more readily than the world

Ode

it is

it has just left, much observes the sights of

entering.

Wordsworth

in his

to Immortality noted a similar condition

in the case of

new-born children, who are

clairvoyant and

much more awake

all

to the

160

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

spiritual world than to this present plane of existence. Some lose the spiritual sight very early, others retain it for a number of years

and a few keep

through life, but as the a death in the spiritual world and it retains the spiritual sight for a time, so also death here is a birth upon the spiritual plane, and the newly dead retain a consciousness of this world for some time subsequent to demise. it all

birth of a child

When

one awakes in the Desire World af-

ter having passed through aforementioned experiences, the general feeling seems to be

one of relief from a heavy burden, a feeling perhaps akin to that of a diver encased in a heavy rubber suit, a weighty brass helmet upon his head, leaden soles under his feet and heavy weights of lead upon his breast and back, confined in his operations on the bottom of the ocean by a short length of air tube, and able only to move clumsily with

When after the day's work such a man is hauled to the surface, and divests himself of his heavy garments and he moves about with the facility we enjoy here, he must surely experience a feeling of great relief. Something like that is felt by the spirit when it has been divested of the mortal coil, and is difficulty.

LIFE AND DEATH able to

roam

all

161

over the globe instead of be-

narrow environment which bound it upon earth. There is also a feeling of relief for those who have been ill. Sickness, such as we know ing confined to the

does not exist there. Neither is it necessary to seek food and shelter, for in that world there is neither heat nor cold. Nevertheless, there are many in the purgatorial regions who go to all bothers of housekeeping, it,

eating and drinking just

George

Du Maurier

we do

in his novel

here.

"Peter

Ib-

bettson" gives a very good idea of this condition, in the life lived between the hero and the Countess of Towers. This novel also illustrates splendidly what has been said of the sub-conscious memory, for Geo. Du Maurier has somewhere, somehow discovered an easy method which anyone may apply to do what he calls "dreaming true." By taking a certain position in going to sleep, it is possible, after a little practice, to compel the appearance, in a dream, of any scene in our past

The life, which we desire to live over again. book is well worth reading on that account. When a fiery nebulae has been formed in the sky and commences to revolve, a little matter in the center where motion is slowest

162

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTEBIES

commences

to crystalize.

When it has reached

a certain density it is caught in the swirl, and whirled nearer and nearer to the outward extremity of what has, by that time, become the equator of a revolving globe. Then it is hurled into space and discarded from the

economy of the revolving This process

sun.

not accomplished automat-

ically as scientists would have us believe, an assertion which has been proven in The

Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception and other Herbert Spencer places in our literature. also rejected the nebular theory because it required a First Cause, which he denied, though unable to form a better hypothesis of the formation of solar systems, but it is accomplished through the activity of a Great Spirit, which we may call God or by any other name we choose. As above, so below, says the Hermetic axiom. Man, who is a lesser spirit, also gathers about himself spirit-substance, which crystallizes into matter and becomes the visible body which the spiritual sight reveals as placed inside an aura of finer vehicles. The latter are in con-

stant motion. When the dense body is born as a child it is extremely soft and flexible.

LIFE AND DEATH

163

Childhood, youth, maturity and old age are but so many different stages of crystallization, which goes on until at last a point is reached where the spirit can no longer move

the hardened hody and it is thrown out from the spirit as the planet is expelled from the sun. That is death! the commencement of a disrobing process which continues in purgatory. The lov evil passions and desires cultivated during life have crystallized the desire stuff in such a manner that that also must be expelled. Thus the spirit is of evil under the same law that a purged sun is purged of the matter which later forms a planet. If the life lived has been a reasonably decent one, the process of purgation will not be very strenuous nor will the evil desires thus expurgated persist for a long time after having been freed, but they quickIf, qn the other hand, an ly disintegrate. extremely vile life has been led, the part of the expurgated desire nature may persist even to the time when the spirit returns to a new birth for further experience. It will then be attracted to him and haunt him as a demon, inciting him to evil deeds which he himself abhors. The story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is not a mere fanciful idea of

164

THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

Robert Louis Stevenson, but facts well

Such

founded upon

known

to spiritual investigators. cases are extremes of course, but they

are nevertheless possible and we have unfortunately laws which convert such possibilities to probabilities in the case of a certain refer to laws class of so-called criminals. which decree capital punishment as penalty of murder.

When a man is dangerous he should of course be restrained, but even apart from the question of the moral right of a community to take the life of anyone which we deny society by its very act of retaliatory murder defeats the very end it would serve, for if the vicious murderer is restrained under whatever discipline is necessary in a prison, for a

number of years

until his natural death, he have forgotten his bitterness against his victim and against society, and when he stands as a free spirit in the Desire World, he may even by prayer have obtained forgiveness and have become a good Christian. He will then go on his way rejoicing, and

will

will in the future life seek to help those

whom

he hurt here.

When society retaliates and puts him to a violent death shortly after he has commit-

LIFE AND DEATH

165

ted the crime, he is most likely to feel himself as having been greatly injured, and not without cause. Then such a character will usually seek to 'get even' as he calls it, he will go about for a long time inciting others to commit murder and other crimes. Then we have an epidemic of murders in a community, a condition not infrequent.

The regicide in Servia shocked the Western World by wiping out an entire royal house in a most shockingly bloody manner, and the Minister of the Interior was one of the chief conspirators. Later he wrote his memoirs, and therein he writes that whenever the con-

had tried to win anyone as a rethey always succeeded when they burned incense. He did not know why, but simply mentioned it as a curious coincidence. To the mystic investigator the matter is perspirators

cruit,

We have shown the necessity of

fectly clear. having a vehicle

made of the materials of any world wherein we wish to function. We usually obtain a physical vehicle by going through the womb, or perhaps in a few special cases from a particularly good materializing medium, but where it is only necessary to work upon the brain and influence someone else to act, we need but a vehicle

166

made

THE BOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES of such ether as

may

be obtained from

fumes of many different substances.

Each

kind attracts different classes of spirits, and there is no doubt that the incense burned at

meetings where the conspirators were successful was of a low and sensual order and

who had

a grudge against and the King of Servia These malcontents were un-

attracted spirits

humanity

in general

in particular. able to injure the

King himself, but used a subtle influence which helped the conspirators in their work. The released murderer who has a grudge against society on account of his execution, may enter low gambling saloons where the fumes of liquor and tobacco furnish ample opportunity for working upon the class of people who congregate in such places, and the man whose spiritual sight has been developed is often sadly impressed when he sees the subtle influences to which those who frequent such places are exposed. It is a fact of course, that a man must be of a low caliber to be influenced by low thoughts, and that it is as impossible to incite a person of benevolent character to do murder unless we put him into a hypnotic sleep as to make a tuning fork which vibrates to C sing by striking another attuned to the key of G,

LIFE AND DEATH

167

but the thoughts of both living and dead constantly surround us, and no man ever thought out a high spiritual philosophy under the influence of tobacco fumes or while imbibing alcoholic stimulants. Were capital punishment, newspaper notoriety of criminals, the manufacture of liquor and tobacco eliminated from society, the gun factories would soon cease* to advertise and go out of business along with most of the locksmiths. The po-

force would decrease, so would jails and taxes would be correspondingly minimized. When a person enters purgatory he is exactly the same person as before he died. He has just the same appetites, likes and disJikes, sympathies and antipathies, as before. lice

There

one important difference, however,

namely, that he has no dense body wherewith to gratify his appetites. The drunkard craves drink, in fact, far more than he did in this life, but has no stomach which can contain liquor and cause chemical combustion necessary to bring about the state of intoxication in which he delights. He may and does enter saloons, where he interpolates his body into the body of a physical drunkard, so that

obtain his desires at second hand as will incite his victim to drink more he were,

he it

may

168

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTEEIES

and more.

Yet there

sees the full glass

no true satisfaction.

upon the counter but

his spirit hand is unable to lift it. He suffers tortures of Tantalus until in time he realizes the impossibility of gratifying his base desire. Then he is free to go on so

far as that vice is concerned. He has been purged from that evil without intervention of an angry deity or a conventional devil with hell's flames and pitchfork to administer punishment, but under the immutable law, that as we sow so shall we reap, he has suffered exactly according to his vice. If his craving for drink was of a mild nature, he would scarcely miss the liquor which he cannot there obtain. If his desires were strong and he simply lived for drink, he would suffer veritable tortures of hell without need of actual flames. Thus the pain experienced in eradication of his vice would be exactly commensurate with the energy he had expended upon contracting the habit, as the force wherewith a falling stone strikes the earth is proportionate to the energy expended in hurling it upwards into the air.

Yet it is not the aim of God to 'get even;' love is higher than law and in His wonderful mercy and solicitude for our welfare He has

LIFE AND DEATH

169

opened the way of repentance and reform whereby we may obtain forgiveness of sin, as taught by the Lord of Love the Christ. Not indeed contrary to law, for His laws are immutable, but by application of a higher law, whereby we accomplish here, that which would otherwise be delayed until death had forced the day of reckoning. The method is :

as follows :

In our explanation concerning the sub-conmemory we noted that a record of every act, thought and word is transmitted by air and ether into our lungs, thence to the blood, and finally inscribed upon the tablet of the heart a certain little seedatom, which is thus the book of Eecording Angels. It was scious

later explained how this panorama of life is etched into the desire body and forms the ba-

When we have committed a wrong and our conscience accuses us in consequence, and this accusation is productive of sincere repentance accomsis of retribution after death.

panied by reform, the picture of that, wrong act will gradually fade from the record of our life, so that when we pass out at deatli it will not stand accusingly against us. We noted that the panorama of life unwinds bac'cwards just after death.

Later, in the purgatorial

170

THE

ROSICRTJCIAN MYSTEBIBS

again passes before the spiritual vision of the man, who then experiences the exact feeling of those whom he has wronged. lie life it

seems to lose his own identity for the time being, and assumes the condition of his one time victim, he experiences all the mental and physical suffering himself which ho inflicted upon others. Thus he learns to be merciful instead of cruel, and to do right instead of wrong in a future life. But if he awakens to a thorough realization of a wrong previous to his death

then, as said, the feeling of sorrow for his victim and the restitution or redress which he gives of his own free will, makes the suffering after death unnecessary, hence ;

'his sin is forgiven.'

The Rosicrucian Mystery teaching

gives a scientificmethod whereby an aspirant tohigher lifemay purge himself continually, and thus be able to entirely avoid existence in purgatory. Each night after retiring the pupil reviews his life during the past day in reverse order. He starts to visualize as clearly as possible the scene which took place just before retiring. He then endeavors to impartially view his actions in that scene examining them to see whether he did right or wrong. If

the latter, he endeavors to feel and realize as

LIFE AND DEATH

171

vividly as possible that wrong. For instance, if he spoke harshly to someone, and upon later

consideration finds it was not merited, he will endeavor to feel exactly as that one felt whom he wronged and at the very earliest opportunity to apologize for the hasty expression. Then he will call up the next scene in backward succession which may perhaps be the supper table. In respect of that scene he will examine himself as to whether he ate to live, sparingly and of foods prepared without suffering to other creatures of God, (such as flesh foods that cannot be obtained without taking life). If he finds that he allowed his appetite to run away with him and that he ate gluttonously, he will endeavor to overcome these habits, for to live a clean life we

must have a clean body and no one can live to his highest possibilities while making his stomach a graveyard for the decayingcorpses of murdered animals. In this respect there occurs to the writer a

Wheeler Wilcox

little

"I am the voice of the voiceless; Through me the dumb shall speak a deaf world's ear Shall be made to hear The wrongs of the wordless weak.

Till

Ella

poem by

;

172

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTEKIES The same force formed the sparrow That fashioned man the king

The God of the whole Gave a spark of sonl To furred and feathered

;

thing.

And I am my brother's keeper And I will fight his fight, And speak the word For beast and bird Till the

world shall

Thus the pupil

set things right.

review each scene in reverse order from night till morning, and to feel really sorry for whatever he has done amiss. He will not neglect to feel glad either when he comes to a scene where he has done well, and the more intensely he can feel, the more thoroughly he will eradicate the record upon the tablet of the heart and sharpen his conscience, so that as time will continue to

goes on from year to year, he will find less cause for blame and enhance his soul power enormously. Thus he will grow in a measure impossible by any less systematic method, and there will be no necessity for his stay in

purgatory after death. This evening exercise and another, for the morning, if persistently performed day by

LIFE AND DEATH

173

day, will in time awaken the spiritual vision as they improve life. This matter has, however, been so thoroughly treated in number 11 of the lecture series: "Spiritual Sight

and Insight; its safe culture and control,'' that it is unnecessary to dwell upon the matter further in this place.

The First Heaven. heaven, which is located in the higher regions of the Desire World, the panorama of life again unrolls and reveals every scene where we aimed to help or benefit others. They were not felt at the time the spirit

In the

first

was in the lower regions, for higher desires cannot express themselves in the coarse matter composing the lower regions of the Desire World, but when the spirit ascends to the first heaven it reaps from each scene all the good which it expressed in life. It will poured out by those whom comes to a scene where itself helped, received a favor from others and was gratefeel the gratitude

if it

ful, it will

experience the gratitude anew.

The sum of all these feelings is there amalgamated into the spirit to serve in a future life as incentives to good.

THE EOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

174

Thus, the soul is purged from evil in purgatory, and strengthened in good in the first heaven. In one region the extract of sufferings become conscience to deter us from doing

wrong, in the other region the quintessence of good is transmuted to benevolence and altruism which are the basis of all true prog-

Moreover, purgatory is far from being a place of punishment, it is perhaps the most beneficent realm in nature, for because of purgation we are born innocent life after life. The tendencies to commit the same evil for which we suffered remain with us and tempress.

tations to

commit the same wrongs will be path until we have consciously

placed in our

overcome the

evil here, temptation is not sin, the sin is in yielding. however, Among the inhabitants of the invisible world there is one class which lives a particreat ularly painful life, sometimes for a many years, namely, the suicide who tried to play truant from the school of life. Yet it is not an angry God or a malevolent devil who administers punishment, but an immutable law which proportions the sufferings differently to each individual suicide.

We the

learned previously, when considering of Thought, that each form in this

World

LIFE AND DEATH

175

a viits archetype there, mold which a certain hollow emits brating harmonious sound, that sound attracts and forms physical matter into the shape we be-

visible

world has

much in the same manner, that when we place a little sand upon a glass plate and rub the edge with a violin bow, the sand is shaped

hold,

into

different

geometrical

figures

which

change as the sound changes.

The little atom in the heart is the sample and the center around which the atoms in our body gather. When that is removed at death, the center is leaking, and although the archetype keeps on vibrating until the lirnH of the has been reached as also previously explained, no matter can be drawn into the hollow shape of the archetype and therefore the suicide feels a dreadful gnawing pain as if he were hollowed out, a torture which can In only be likened to the pangs of hunger. his case, the intense suffering will continue for exactly as many years as he should have life

At the expiration of that the time, archetype collapses as it does when death comes naturally. Then the pain of the suicide ceases, and he commences his period of purgation as do those who die a natural death. But the memory of sufferings experilived in the body.

176

THE KOSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

enced in consequence of the act of suicide will

remain with him in future lives and deter him from a similar mistake. In the first heaven there is a class who have not had any purgatorial existence and who lead a particularly joyous life: the children.

Our homes may be saddened almost beyond endurance, when the little flower is broken and the sunshine it brought has gone. But could we see the beautiful existence which these little ones lead, and did we understand the great benefits which accrue to a child from its limited stay there, our sorrow would be at least ameliorated in a great measure, and the wound upon our heart would heal more quickly. Besides, as nothing else in the world happens without a cause, so there is also a much deeper cause for infant mortality than we are usually aware of, and as we awake to the facts of the case, we shall be able to avoid in future the sorrow incident to loss of our little ones. To understand the case properly we must

revert to the experiences of the dying in the remember that the panodeath hour. rama of the past life is etched upon the desire

body during a period varying from a few hours to three and one-half days, just subse-

LIFE AND DEATH

177

quent to demise. We recall also, that upon the depth of this etching depends the clearness of the picture, and that the more vivid panorama of life, the more intensely will the spirit suffer in purgatory and feel the joys of heaven also, that the greater the suffering in purgatory the stronger the conscience in the next life. this

;

was explained how the horrors of death upon the battlefield, in an accident or other untoward circumstances would prevent the spirit from giving all its attention to the panorama of life with the result that there would It

be a light etching in the desire body, followed by a vague and insipid existence in purgatory and the first heaven. It was also stated that hysterical lamentations in the death chamber

would produce the same effect. A spirit which had thus escaped suffering proportionate to its misdeeds, and which had not experienced the pleasure commensurate with the good it had done, would not in a future life have as well developed a conscience as it ought to have, nor would it be as benevolent as it ought to be, and therefore the life, terminated under conditions over which the spirit had no control, would be partly wasted. The Great Leaders of humanity therefore

178

THE BOSICBUCIA^ MYSTEBIES

take steps to counteract such a calamity and prevent an injustice. The spirit is brought to birth, caused to die in childhood, it re-enters the Desire World, and in the first heaven it is taught the lessons of which it was de-

prived previously.

the first heaven is located in the Desire World, which is the realm of light and col-

where matter is shaped most readily by or, thought, the little ones are given wonderful toys impossible of construction here. They are taught to play with colors which work upon their moral character in exactly the child requires. Anyone who is at all sensitive is affected by the color of his

manner each

clothing and surroundings. Some colors have a depressing effect, while others inspire us with energy, and others again soothe and comfort us. In the Desire World the effect of colors is much more intense, they are much more potent factors of good and evil there than here, and in this color play, the child

imbibes unconsciously the qualities which it did not acquire on account of accident or lamentations of relatives. Often it also falls to the lot of such relatives to care for a child in the invisible world, or perhaps to give it birth

and see

it die.

Thus they receive

just retri-

LIFE AND DEATH

179

bution for the wrong committed. As wars cease, and man learns to be more careful of life, and also how to care for the dying, infant mortality, which now is so appalling, will decrease.

The Second Heaven.

When both the good and evil of a life has been extracted, the spirit discards its desira body and ascends to the second heaven. The body then commences to disintegrate as the physical body and the vital body have done, bnt it is a peculiarity of desire stuff, that once it has been formed and inspired with life, it persists for a considerable time. desire

Even

after that life has fled

lives a semi-

Sometimes

it is conscious, independent of to relatives drawn by magnetic attraction

life.

the spirit whose clothing it was, and at spiritualistic seances these shells generally imper-

sonate the departed spirit and deceive its relatives. As the panorama of the past life is etched into the shells they have a memory of incidents in connection with these relatives, which facilitates the deception. But as the

un-

intelligence has fled, they are of course able to give any true counsel, and that ac-

180

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

counts for the inane, goody-goody nonsense of which these things deliver themselves. When passing from the first to the second heaven, the spirit experiences the condition known and described previously as "The Great Silence," where it stands utterly alone conscious only of its divinity. When that silence is broken there floats in upon the spirit celestial harmonies of the world of tone where the second heaven is located. It seems then to lave in an ocean of sound and to experience a joy beyond all description and words, as it nears its heavenly home for this is the first of the truly spiritual realms from which the spirit has been exiled during its earth life and the subsequent post-mortem existence. In the Desire World its work was corrective, but in the World of Thought the human spirit becomes one with the nature forces and

its

creative activity begins.

Under the law of causation we reap exactly what we sow, and it would be wrong to place one spirit in an environment where there

scarcity of the necessities of life, where a scorching sun burns the crop and millions die

from famine, or where the raging

flood

sweeps away primitive habitations not built to withstand its ravages, and to bring another

LIFE AND DEATH

181

spirit to birth in a land of plenty, with a fer-

maximum of increase of labor, where the earth is rich in minerals that may be used in industry tile soil

with a

which yields a

minimum

to facilitate transportation of products of the soil from one point to another. If we were

thus placed without action or acquiescence upon our part, there would be no justice, but as our post-mortem existence in purgatory and the first heaven is based upon our moral attitude in this life so our activities in the second heaven are determined by our mental aspirations and they produce our future physical environment, for in the second heaven, the spirit becomes part of the nature forces which work upon the earth and change its climate, flora and fauna. spirit of an indolent nature, who indulges in day dreams and metaphysical speculations here, is not transformed by death respecting its mental attitude any more than regarding its moral propensities. It will dream away time in heaven, glorying in its sights and sounds. Thus it will neglect to work upon its future country and return to a barren and arid land. Spirits, on the other hand, whose material aspirations lead them to desire so-called solid comforts of hearth and home ; who aim to

182

THE

ROSICRUCIAST MYSTERIES

promote great industries and whose mind is concerned in trade and commerce, will build in heaven a land that will suit their purpose :

immineralized, with navigable rivers and sheltered harbors. They will return in time to enjoy upon earth the fruits of their labors in the second heaven, as they reap the result of their life upon earth in purgatory and the first heaven. fertile,

The Third Heaven. In the third heaven most people have very consciousness for reasons explained in connection with the Region of Abstract Thought, for there the third heaven is lo-

little

cated.

It is therefore

more of a place

of wait-

ing where the spirit rests between the time when its labors in the second heaven have been completed and the time when it again experiences the desire for rebirth. But from this realm inventors bring down their original ideas; there the philanthropist obtains the clearest vision of

how

to realize his utopian

dreams and the spiritual aspirations of the saintly minded are given renewed impetus. In time the desires of the spirit for further experiences draws it back to rebirth, and the

LIFE AND DEATH

183

Great Celestial Beings who are known in the Christian Religion as Recording Angels, assist the spirit to come to birth in the place best suited to give it the experience necessary to further unfold its powers and possibilities.

have

been here many times and in we have had relations of varying nature with many different people all

different families,

and usually there are several families among seek re-embodiment to work out our self-generated destiny and reap what we have sown in former life. If there are no

whom we may

why we should take birth in any particular family among certain friends or foes, the spirit is allowed to choose its own place of birth. Thus it may be said that most special reasons

of us are in our present places

by our own

prenatal choice. In order to assist us in

making that choice the Recording Angels call up before the spirit's vision a panorama in general outlines, of each of the offered lives. This panorama will show what part of our past debts we are to pay, and what fruits we may be expected to reap in the coming

life.

free to choose between the several lives offered. But once a choice has

The

spirit is left

184

THE

ROSICRTJCIAN MYSTERIES

been made no evasion

possible during life. regard to the future, but the past 'mature' destiny we cannot escape, as shown by the incident recorded in The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception, where the writer warned a well known Los Angeles lecturer that if he left his home upon a certain day, he would be injured by a convey-

We have free will with

ance, in head, neck, breast and shoulders. The gentleman believed and intended to heed

our warning. Nevertheless he went to Sierra

Madre to lecture upon the fateful day. He was injured in the places stated by a collision and later explained "I thought the twentyeighth was the twenty-ninth.** When the spirit has made its choice, it de:

scends into the second heaven where it is instructed by the Angels and Archangels how to build an archetype of the body which it will later inhabit upon earth. Also here we note the operation of the great law of justice which decrees that we reap what we sow. If our tastes are coarse and sensual, we shall build an archetype which will express these qualities if we are refined and of aesthetic

build an archetype correspondingly refined, but no one can obtain a better body than he can build. Then, as the

taste,

shall

LIFE AND DEATH architect

who

terwards

lives, will suffer

185

builds a house in which he af-

discomfort

neglects to properly ventilate it, so also the spirit feels disease in a poorly constructed

body, and as the architect learns to avoid mistakes and remedy the short-comings of one house when building another, so also the spirit which suffers from defects in its body, learns in time to build better and better vehicles.

In the Eegion of Concrete Thought, the draws to itself materials for a new mind. As a magnet draws iron filings but leaves other substances alone, so also each spirit draws only the kind of mind-stuff which it used in its former life, plus that which it has learned to use in its present post-mortem state. Then it descends into the Desire World where it gathers material for a new desire body such as will express approprispirit also

ately its moral characteristics, and later it attracts a certain amount of ether which is built into the mold of the archetype con-

structed in the second heaven and acts as ce-

ment between the solids, liquids and gaseous material from the bodies of parents which forms the dense physical body of a child, and in due time the latter is brought to birth.

186

THE KOSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES Birth and Child Life.

must not be imagined, however, that the little body of a child has been born, the process of birth is completed. The dense physical body has had the longest evolution, and as a shoemaker who has worked at his trade for a number of years is more expert than an apprentice and can make better shoes and quicker, so also the spirit which has built many physical bodies produces them quickly, It

when

but the vital body

a later acquisition of the are not so expert

human being. Therefore we

in building that vehicle. Consequently it takes longer to construct that from the mate-

used up in making the lining of the archetype, and the vital body is not born until the seventh year. Then the period of rapid The desire body is a growth commences. still later addition of composite man, and is not brought to birth until the fourteenth year when the desire nature expresses itself most strongly during so-called 'hot' youth, and the mind, which makes man man, does not come to birth until the twenty-first year. In law that age is recognized as the earliest time he rials not

is fitted to

exercise a franchise.

LIFE ASTD DEATH

This knowledge

187

of the utmost importance

to parents, as a proper understanding of the development which should take place in each

of the septenary epochs enables the educator work intelligently with nature and thus fulfill more thoroughly the trust of a parent than those who are ignorant of the Rosicruto

cian Mystery Teaching. shall therefore devote the remaining pages to an elucidation of this matter and of the importance of the knowledge of astrology upon the part of the parent.

The Mystery

of Light, Color

and

Consciousness.

"God is Light," says the Bible, and we are unable to conceive of a grander simile of His Omnipresence, or the mode of His manifestation.

Even

the

greatest

telescopes

have

failed to reach the boundaries of light, though they reveal to us stars millions of miles from the earth, and we may well ask ourselves, as did the Psalmist of old Whither shall I flee from Thy Presence ? If I ascend into heaven Thou art there, If I make my bed in the grave :

Hebrew word slieol means grave and not hell), Thou art there, If I take the wings (the

188

THE

ROSICRUCIABT MYSTERIES

of morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead

me." When,

in the

dawn

of Being,

God

the Fath-

The Word, and The Holy Spirit moved upon the sea of homogeneous Virgin Matter, primeval Darkness was turned to Light. That is therefore the prime manifestation of Deity, and a study of the principles er enunciated

of Light will reveal to the mystic intuition a wonderful source of spiritual inspiration. As it would take us too far afield from our subject we shall not enter into an elucidation of that theme here, except so far as to give an elementary idea of how divine Life energizes

human frame, and stimulates to action. Truly, God is ONE and undivided, He en-

the

folds within His

Being

all

that

is,

as the white

But He appears light embraces all colors. three-fold in manifestation, as the white light refracted in three primary colors: Blue, Wherever we see these colors they are emblematical of the Father, Son

Yellow and Bed.

Spirit. These three primary rays Life are diffused or radiated divine of through the sun and produce Life, Consciousness and Form upon each of the seven lightbearers, the planets, which are called "the

and Holy

189

Seven Spirits before the Throne. " Their names are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Bode's law Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. proves that Neptune does not belong to our solar system and the reader is referred to "Simplified, Scientific Astrology" by the present writer, for mathematical demonstration of this contention.

Each of the seven planets receives the light of the sun in a diffeernt measure, according to its proximity to the central orb and the constitution of its atmosphere, and the beeach, according to their stage of development, have affinity for some of the

ings

upon

They absorb the color or colors congruous to them, and reflect the remainder upon the other planets. This reflected ray bears with it an impulse of the nature of the beings with which it has been in contact. Thus the divine Light and Life comes to each planet, either directly from the sun, or solar rays.

reflected

its six sister planets, and as breeze which has been wafted

from

the summer over blooming fields carries upon its silent invisible wings the blended fragrance of a multitude of flowers, so also the subtle influences from the garden of God bring to us the commingled impulses of all the Spirits and

190

THE EOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

in that varicolored light

we live and more and

have OUT being. The rays which come directly from the sun are productive of spiritual illumination, the from other planets make for added consciousness and moral development and the rays reflected by way of the moon reflected rays

give physical growth. But as each planet can only absorb a certain quantity of one or more colors according to the general stage of evolution there, so each being upon earth mineral, plant, animal and man can only absorb and thrive upon a certain quantity of the various rays projected upon the earth. The remainder do not affect it or produce sensation, any more than the blind are conscious of light and color which exists everywhere around them. Therefore each being is differently affected by the stellar rays and the science of Astrology a fundamental truth in nature, of enormous benefit in the attainment of spiritual :

growth.

From a horoscopic we may learn our own

figure in mystic script

strength and weakness, with the path best suited to our development, or we may see the tendencies of those friends who come to us as children, and what traits

LIFE AND are dormant in them.

DEATH Thus we

191 shall

know

how to

discharge our duty as parents, by repressing evil before it comes to birth and fostering good, so that it piay bring forth most abundantly the spiritual potencies of the soul committed to our care. clearly

As we have

already said, man returns to earth to reap that which he has sown in previous lives and to sow anew the seeds which make for future experience. The stars are the heavenly time keepers which measure the year, the moon indicates the month when time will be propitious to harvest or to sow.

The

child is a

mystery to us

all,

we can

only know its propensities as they slowly develop into characteristics, but it is usually too late to check, when evil habits have been formed and the youth is upon the downward horoscope cast for the time of birth grade. in a scientific manner shows the tendencies to good or evil in the child, and if a parent will take time and trouble necessary to study the science of the stars, he or she may do the child intrusted to his or her care an inestimable service, by fostering tendencies to good and repressing the evil bent of a child ere it has crystallized into habit. Do not imagine that a superior mathematical knowledge is

192

THE ROSICBUCLOT MYSTERIES

necessary to erect a horoscope. Many construct a horoscope in such an involved manner, so "fearfully and wonderfully made" that it is unreadable to themselves or others, while a simple figure, easy of reading may be constructed by anyone who knows how to add and subtract. This method has been thor-

oughly elucidated in Simplified Scientific Astrology which is a complete text book, though small and inexpensive, and any parent who has the welfare of his or her children thoroughly at heart should endeavor to learn for themselves, for even though their ability may not compare with that of a professional astrologer, their intimate knowledge of the child and their deep interest will more than

compensate for such lack and enable them to see most deeply into the child's character by

means of

its

horoscope.

Education of Children. Respecting the birth of the various vehiand the influence which that has upon we life, may say that during the time from birth to the seventh year the lines of growth cles

of the physical body are determined, and as has been noted that sound is builder both

LIFE AND DEATH

193

in the great and small, we may well imagine that rhythm must have an enormous influ-

ence upon the growing and sensitive little child's organism. The apostle John in the first chapter of his gospel expresses this idea mystically in the beautiful words: "In the . and beginning was the without it was not anything made that was

WORD

and the word became flesh " the word is a rhythmic sound, which issued from the Creator, reverberated through the universe and marshaled countless millions of atoms into the multiplex variety of shapes The and forms which we see about us. the and the mouse the mountain, mayflower, man are all embodiments of that great Cos mic Word which is still sounding through the universe and which is still building and ever building though unheard by our insensitive ears. But though we do not hear that won derful celestial sound, we may also work upon the little child's body by terrestrial music, and though the nursery rhymes are without sense, they are nevertheless bearers of a wonderful rhythm, and the more a child is taught to say, sing and repeat them, to dance and to march to them; the more music is incorpo-

made

rated into a child's daily

life,

the stronger

THE ROSICBUOIAN MYSTERIES

194

and healthier will be its body in future years. There are two mottoes which apply during this period, one to the child and the other to the parent Example and Imitation. No creature under heaven is more imitative than a little child, and its conduct in after years will depend largely upon the example set by its parents during its early life. It is no use to tell the child "not to mind," it has no mind wherewith to discriminate, but follows ite natural tendency, as water flows down a hill, :

when

imitates.

Therefore

behooves

every parent to remember from morning tiH night that watchful eyes are upon him all the time waiting but for him to act in order to follow his example. It is of the utmost importance that the child 's clothing should be very loose, particularly the clothing of little boys, as chafing garments often produce vices which follow a

man through

life.

If anyone should attempt to forcibly extract a babe from the protecting womb of its mother, the outrage would result in death,

because the babe had not yet arrived at a maturity sufficient to endure impacts of the Physical "World. In the three septenary periods which follow birth, the invisible vehi-

LIFB AFD DEATH cles are still in the

we teach a

womb

195

of mother nature.

child of tender years to

memo-

or to think, or if we arou&e its feelings and emotions, we are in fact opening the protecting womb of nature and the results are equally as disastrous in other respects as a forced premature birth. Child prodigies usurize,

ally become men and women of less than ordinary intelligence. We should not hinder the child from learning or thinking of his own volition, but we should not goad them on as

parents often do to nourish their

own

pride.

When

the vital body is Born at the age of seven a period of growth begins and a new motto, or relation rather, is established be-

tween parent and child. This may be expressed in the two words Authority and Discipleship. In this period the child is taught certain lessons which it takes upon faith in the authority of its teachers, whether at home or at school, and as memory is a faculty of the vital body it can now memorize what is learned.

It is therefore eminently teachable ;

particularlv because it is unbiased bv preconceived opinions which prevent most of us from accepting new views. At the end of thie second period from about twelve to fourteen, the vital body has been so far developed :

196

THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

that puberty is reached. At the age of fourteen we have the birth of the desire body, which marks the commencement of self-asser-

In earlier years the child regards itself to a family, and subordinate to the wishes of its parents than after the fourteenth year. The reason is this In tion.

more as belonging

the throat of the foetus and the young child there is a gland called the thymus gland,

which

is largest before birth, then gradually diminishes through the years of childhood and finally disappears at ages which vary according to the characteristics of the child. Anatomists have been puzzled as to the function of this organ and have not yet come to any settled conclusion, but it has been suggested that before development of the red marrow bones, the child is not able to manu-

own

blood, and that therefore the thymus gland contains an essence, supplied by the parents, upon which the child may

facture

its

draw during infancy and childhood, till able own blood. That theory

to manufacture its

approximately true, and as the family blood flows in the child, it looks upon itself as But part of the family and not as an Ego. the moment it commences to manufacture its is

own

blood, the

Ego

asserts itself,

LIFE AND DEATH

197

longer Papa's girl or Mamma's boy, it has an 'I'-dentity of its own. Then comes the critical age when parents reap what they have sown. The mind has not yet been born, nothing holds the desire nature in check, and

much, very much, depends upon how the child has been taught in earlier years and what example the parents have set. At this point in life self-assertion, the feeling '/ am myself,' is stronger than at any other time and therefore authority should give place to Advice, the parent should practice the utmost tolerance, for at no time in life is a human being as much in need of sympathy as during the seven years from fourteen to twenty-one when the desire nature is rampant and unchecked. It is a crime to inflict corporeal punishment upon a child at any age. Might is never right, and as the stronger, parents should always have compassion for the weaker. But there is one feature of corporeal punishment

which makes it particularly dangerous to apply it to the youth namely, that it wakens the passional nature which is already perhaps be:

yond the control of a growing boy. If we whip a dog, we shall soon break its spirit and transform it into a cringing cur,

THB ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

198

deplorable that some parents seem it as their mission in life to break the spirit of their children with the rule of the rod. If there is one universal lack among the human race which is more apparent than any other, it is lack of will, and as parents we may remedy the evil in a large measure by guiding the wills of our children along such lines as dictated by our own more mature

and

it is

to regard

reason, so that we help them to grow a backbone instead of a wishbone with which unfortunately most of us are afflicted. Therefore, never whip a child, when punishment is necessary, correct by withholding favors or withdrawing privileges. At the twenty-first year the birth of the mind transforms the youth into a man or a woman fully equipped to commence his own the school of experience. Thus we have followed the human spirit around a life cvcle from death to birth and maturity, we have seen how immutable law governs his every step and how he is ever encompassed bv the loving care of the Great and Glorious Beings who are the ministers of

life in

The method of his future development be explained in a later work which will deal with "The Christian Mystic Initiation."

God. will

FIFTH EDITION. Price &Li5to,YPostfree. $2.00

This remarkable book by Max Heindel marks an ennew departure in mystic literature. For the first time in history the Western Wisdom Teaching concerning Life and Being which the Rosicruians have guarded for centuries, is here given by an authorized messenger, for it is held that the world is now ready to receive this advanced science of the soul. The existing soul-hunger, and the satisfying nature f the Rosicrucian teachings are equally well attested by tfce phenomenal sale of this great book, and the many thousands of letters received by the author from grateful students all over the world, who testify that they have fund in this book what they have long sought elsewhere ttrely

in vain.

The Fifth Edition covers 602 pages, is printed in dear type on good paper; it is bound in cloth with reinforcements to withstand the hard wear usually given to a text-book; has 30 diagrams and illustrations, two of them in four colors, and an index of 72 pages, so thorough that The it is almost a syllabus of any subject in the book. beautiful symbolical cover design is stamped in red, black and genuine gold, and the three edges are also gold, making an unusually handsome volume at the extremely low price of $1.50, postfree. The wide scope of the book is indicated by the note n the title-page, in which it is stated to be "an elementary treatise upon Man's past evolution, present constitution

and future development." We give herewith some headings of chapters and subdivisions as a slight indication of what is contained in this mine of mystic light and knowledge. Part I. I .The Visible and Invisible Worlds, with two diagrams. H. The Four Kingdoms, with two diagrams showing their yehicles and consciousness.

Man and the Method of Evolution. Spirit, Soul and Body; Thought, Memory and Soul-growth. The ConThe scious, Subconscious and Superconscious mind.

///.

science of death, the beneficience of purgatory, life in

Heaven; preparation for re-birth. IV. Re-birth and the Law of Consequence. Wine as a factor in evolution, an authentic story proving re-birth. Part

II.

V. The Relation of Man to God, with diagram. VI. The Scheme of Evolution. general outline, witk diagram of the Seven World Periods. VII. The Path of Evolution. Cosmic Days of active work and Cosmic Nights of passive contemplation. VIII. The Work of Evolution. How the Cherubim, Seraphim, Archangels and Angels helped. XI. Genesis and Evolution of our Solar System. Chaos the seed-ground of Cosmos, Birth of the Planets, Planet-

ary

Spirits.

Evolution on the Earth. The Moon, the eighth sphere of retrogression, Birth of the Individual, Separation into Sexes, Lucifer Spirits and the Fall, Sixteen Paths to Destruction. XIII. Back to the Bible. Who the "lost" tribes are, and why Jesus was born a Jew. XIV. Occult Analysis of Genesis. The Nebular theory, Jehovah and his mission ; a living soul ; why hybrids are XII.

sterile?

Part

III.

"Peace on Earth" and XV. Christ and His Mission. "Not Peace, but a Sword." The Star of Bethlehem, the Heart an Anomaly, the Mystery of Golgotha and the cleansing blood.

Future Development and Initiation. The Symbol- * ism of the Caduceus, Alchemy and Soulgrowth. XVII. The Method of Acquiring First-Hand Knowledge. Western Methods for Western People, the science of

XVI.

law of Assimilation, the Lord's Prayer, Esoteric Training, how the inner vehicle is built? XVIII. The Constitution of the Earth and Volcanic Erupnutrition, the

tions.

Christian Rosenkreuz and the Order of RosicruThe Rosicrucian Initiation, the Rosicrucian Fellowship, Symbolism of the Rose Cross, the Power of Healing.

XIX.

cians.

IN QUESTIONS

AND ANSWERS.

Price $3&VPostfree. $1.50

A book of ready reference upon all mystic matters, which ought to be in the library of every occult student. It covers 432 pages; has a considerable number of illuminating diagrams, is printed on fine paper in clear type, reinforced binding of cloth with the beautiful Rosicrucian symbols stamped upon the cover in red, black and genuine gold leaf; the three edges are also gold. The handsome style of this volume will make it a much appreciated "gift book," and the merely nominal price is

an inducement

to liberality.

PARTIAL LIST OF SUBJECTS. L

Life on Earth. Social Conditions, Marriage, Children, Sleep and Dreams, Health and Disease. Section II. Life After Death. Cremation, Purgatory, The First Heaven, The Second Heaven, The Third

Section

Heaven, Guardian Angels. Section HI.

Rebirth.

The Law of Rebirth, The Law

Causation, Transmigration. The Creation, The Section IV. The Bible Teachings. of Christ. Immaculate The Sayings Conception, Fall, Section V. Spiritualistic Phenomena. Mediumship, Obsession, Materialisiation.

Section VI.

Clairvoyance.

Spiritual Unfoldment, Section VII. Astrology. Section VIII. Animals. It is truly

Dangers of Psychism, True

Initiation.

True and False. Their Life Here and Hereafter.

AN OCCULT INFORMATION BUREAU!

$2.00

Pi-:::

YEAil IN *LL

from

<J^

JNT

tfye xjf

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF lOc.

JitS^TIC LIGHT. Subscription in the U. S^j&pMj a year. Single copies Canada, $1.25 a yea^&England, 63 6d a year. Ger-

many, 6 Marks General Contents.

The Mystic Light Department is devoted to articles on Occultism, Mystic Masonry, Esoteric Christianity and similar Spiritual Subjects.

The Question Department is designed to give further light upon the various subjects dealt with in the different departments, where queries from students and other subscribers

make

this necessary.

The Astral Ray Department gives Cosmic Light on

Life'g

So far as space permits horoscopes of subscribers' children are read each month. These readings show the hidden faults and talents to help parents bring Problems.

out the best in their charges. Vocational Readings for young men and women are given to show them the sphere in the world's work for which they are best fitted. Students will find these readings of great value as practical lessons in Astrology. Studies in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception. Our Origin, Evolution and ultimate Destiny is religiously, reasonably and scientifically explained in this department. Nutrition and Health. Our body is "A Living Temple," we build it without "sound or hammer," by our food. In this department articles on diet teach how to build wisely

and well. The Rose Cross Healing results.

Circle.

Its meetings

and their

(

Echoes from Mount Ecclesia. Headquarters.

News and Notes

froan

Po&r

Christ

By Max Heindel, 15c Postfree. The

title

indicates sufficiently the scope of the book. and to the point like all the writings of

It ia direct this author.

CUrrisi or 3Oc The

Postfree.

idea that India is the

knowledge

held by

main repository of

occult

many who have

tian Religion to embrace Hinduism. shows most clearly that

forsaken the Chris"Christ or Buddha?"

THE WESTERN WISDOM TEACHINGS throw a light upon the problems of life which is much more intense, far-reaching and soul satisfying in every respect.

partial list of contents will indicate its scope.

Involution, Evolution and Epigenesis.

Trance.

Dreamless Dreams.

The The The The The

sleep.

Waking

State.

Mystery of Blood. Mystery of Sex. Mystery of Death. Christ of the West is not the Christ of the East. Christ of the West.

irf

By Max

Heindel

tip

& Augusta

Foss Heindel.

$2.50 XSflfc, Postfree.

Hie

Science of Astro-Diagnosis is here given in its entirety, stripped of all technicalities and brought down to first principles. Twenty-two horoscopes are used to teach the student how to detect diseases, even those which baffle the skill of the most able physicians; also how to foretell impending crises and when recovery may be expected. This knowledge enables those in charge of the rick to prepare for and guard against critical periods in a manner which may sometimes save a life. It may help parents to guard their children against incipient disease by strengthening during childhood organs and functions shown by the horoscope to be weak. An ounce of preTention at that time when the body is still plastic, may save the child pounds of misery in later life.

This Knowledge is vital to Parents, Doctors and Nurses. Anyone of ordinary intelligence can grasp the subject, for the explanations are clear, precise and to the point.

This book is in a class by itself, the Astrology it teaches is not fortune-telling, for the authors regard that as a degrading misuse of a spiritual science. It is a Master-key to the true Esoteric Astrology, practically applied to the problems of life.

HOROSCOPE BLANKS. Printed on good paper, letter size, 8%xll inches, with c without Index of aspects, as ordered lOc per dozen; Xt for 60; or 65c per 100.

Max

Heindel.

THIRD EDITION. $1.20 X$Sfc Postfree.

This book needs no introduction. Its unparalleled merits as a Complete Text-book of the art of casting a Horoscope have been amply attested by many thousands of enthusiastic students who have bought the first two editions, but

THE PHILOSOPHIC ENCYCLOPEDIA With

PLANETARY HOUR TABLES FOR ALL LATITUDES Added

to the

THIRD EDITION a long felt want of both beginners and advanced students for information concerning the underlying reaIt is a mine of knowledge sons of astrological dicta. arranged in such a manner as to be instantly accessible, no student can afford to be without it; 112 pp. Printed o a fine grade of paper with a heavy durable cover in two

fills

colors,

SIMPLIFIED CALCULATION FORMS. Many good Astrologers are lost to the world because people gifted with the intuitional ability to read a horoscope are usually poor mathematicians. When our Simplified Calculation Forms are used, there is no mental strain; the student has only to fill in figures in blank spaces provided, and before he realizes the horoscope is cast. 15c each. 4 for 50c.

IXogtcrucian PRETAT INTERPRETATION OF

Cfjrfettanttp ANCIENT TRUTHS IN MODERN DRESS

The price of these lectures postage for each copy. No.

$0cents each plus 1 cent

"THE RIDDLE OF LIFE AND DEATH."

ing a solution which

No. No.

Presentboth scientific and religious.

"WHERE ARE THE DEAD?"

"SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS." Showing that we have a latent "sixtk sense," and what it opens up to us when cultivated. No. 4. "SLEEP, DREAMS, TRANCE HYPNOTISM, MEDI-V 3.

UMSHIP AND INSANITY." 5. "DEATH AND LIFE IN PURGATORY."

No.

Describ-

ing the method of death and purgation, also how immutable law and not an avenging Deity transmutes the evil acts of life to everlasting good.

No.

how

"LIFE AND ACTIVITY IN HEAVEN." the

Showing

Human

past life and

Spirit assimilates the Good of its creates its environment for a future re-

how it prepares a new body. "BIRTH A FOURFOLD EVENT." Describing the

birth, also

No.

antenatal preparations for birth, and the spiritual changes which inaugurate the period of excessive physical growth in the 7th year, the cause of puberty at 14 and maturity at 21. This knowledge is absolutely essential to the right care of a child.

No. 8. "THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION, HEALTH AND .PROTRACTED YOUTH." Showing the material cause of early death and the obvious prophylactic. No. 9. "THE ASTRONOMICAL ALLEGORIES OF THE BIBLE/'

10. "ASTROLOGY; ITS SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS." Showing the spiritual side of astrology, how it enables w those who study it to help themselves and others. No. 11. "SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT." Its culture, control and legitimate use, giving a definite and safe method of attainment. No. 12. "PARSIFAL." Wagner's famous Mystic Music Drama, a mine of inspiration to spiritual effort. No. 13. "THE ANGELS AS FACTORS IN EVOLUTION/' Showing just what part the Angels, Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, etc., play in the Drama of Life^ No. 14. "LUCIFER, TEMPTER OR BENEFACTOR ?" Showing the origin and the mission of pain and sorrow.

No.

15.

"THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA AND THE

CLEANSING BLOOD." satisfies

No. 16. FACT/' No. 17.

rational explanation which

head and heart alike. "THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM;

"THE MYSTERY or THE HOLY

MYSTIC*

GRAIL."

The

to attainment.

way

"THE LORD'S PRAYER." Showing the esoteric and how it applies to the seven-fold constitution of man. No. 19. THE COMING FORCE ; VRIL OB WHAT ? No. 20. "FELLOWSHIP AND THE COMING RACE/' Showing why the Bible contains both the Jewish and and why both combined are the Christian No.

18.

side,

Religions, peculiarly adapted to the spiritual needs of the West-

ern World and

why Jesus was born a Jew.

These lectures are fine for beginners, read consecutively, they give a comprehensive outline of our philosophy. ftt

and allow a busy man to to or trom business. it?

It is

utilize

time on cars en route

to a

an inexpensive and a helpful

gift.

UCSB LIBRARY

University of California

SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed.

000 664 998